One Hundred Steps

2000 1h 54m IT

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 746

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Peppino Impastato is a quick-witted lad growing up in 1970s Sicily. Despite hailing from a family with Mafia ties and living just one hundred steps from the house of local boss Tano Badalamenti, Peppino decides to expose the Mafia by using a pirate radio station to broadcast his political pronouncements in the form of ironic humour.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Luigi Lo Cascio
Peppino Impastato
Luigi Maria Burruano
Luigi Impastato
Lucia Sardo
Felicia Impastato
Paolo Briguglia
Giovanni Impastato
Tony Sperandeo
Tano Badalamenti
Andrea Tidona
Stefano Venuti
Claudio Gioè
Salvo Vitale
Domenico Centamore
Vito

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Writers: Claudio Fava, Marco Tullio Giordana, Monica Zapelli
Languages: English, Italian
Countries: Italy

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 6

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 6

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Italian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, shot by Roberto Forza. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 6

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Roberto Missiroli shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 6

CAST

Did you know

Luigi Lo Cascio and Luigi Maria Burruano and Lucia Sardo carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 6

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0238891 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Marco Tullio Giordana directs. Roberto Forza behind the camera. Roberto Missiroli cuts. Produced in Italy. Dialogue in English, Italian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

126 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Italian.
3Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, shot by Roberto Forza. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Roberto Missiroli shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Luigi Lo Cascio and Luigi Maria Burruano and Lucia Sardo carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt0238891 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Classified under 9 themes, including "sicily, italy", "biography", "based on true story", "pirate radio".

The technical file

Cinematography: Roberto Forza
Editing: Roberto Missiroli
Production design: Franco Ceraolo
Costume design: Elisabetta Montaldo
Makeup / hair: Samankta Mura
Stunt coordinator: Sal Borgese
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Status: Released
Box office: $3,000,000
Original language: IT
Certification (US): AA
IMDB: One Hundred Steps (2000)

Also by

Marco Tullio Giordana

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-12-01
★ 7/10
This has quite a poignant underlying message of complicity and compliance as it tells the true story of firebrand young man Peppino Impastato (Luigi Lo Cascio). He lives on a mafia-dominated Sicily in a family led by his acquiescing father Luigi (Luigi Maria Burruano). It's not that his dad is cowardly, far from it, but he has a wife (Lucia Sardo) and another son, Giovanni (Paolo Briguglia), so is constantly conscious that any resistance to the established order could prove perilous. Peppino has all the vigour and irresponsibility of his age and together with some friends sets up a local radio station that mixes a contemporary mix of classic rock music with some fairly direct rantings about the local "don" - comparing him to legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull holding court over a tribe full of drug users and sleazy hookers. This isn't a gun-toting organisation. It doesn't need to be. It gets it's way by a combination of carrot and stick approaches. If the population co-operate then life can be good, but if they stray from the arbitrary control of "Tano" (Tony Sperandeo) then they might find themselves starring in their own personal version of a Buster Keaton film. Cascio is on strong form here offering us quite a compelling presentation of a young man who genuinely believed that his on-air protestations could elicit change for good and when his family warn him of the risks - to them and to him - that just seems to galvanise him. The conclusion is history; a sad and depressing history that rather well illustrated the extent of the collusion that existed between the authorities and the "authorities" and the disposability of an inconvenient life. Briguglia also contributes well as does Sardo as his strong-willed but increasingly wary mother whilst the writing offers us a lively bedrock for characters that mingled passion with prescience in an entertaining and engaging fashion. The production looks good and it's well worth a watch.

Production companies