At the end of their first year of university spent in Bologna, Pippo and Zebra, friends from Aosta, decide to set off on an adventure on an old Vespa to ‘find’ Juliette, a French girl from Lille (northern France) they met at the seaside earlier. Following in the footsteps of their cult film, Quadrophenia, a musical inspired by the music of The Who, the two decide to leave their daily routine behind to embark on a road trip. Federico (known as Pippo) and Stefano (known as Zebra) grew up together in the same neighbourhood, they have opposite but complementary characters, they form an ‘odd couple’. Pippo is idealistic and impulsive, he lives in a sort of bubble linked to the cult of the 70s passed on by his maternal grandfather who raised him, Zebra on the other hand is in step with the times, an ‘integrated’ with a well-to-do family behind him that has mapped out his future. The Vespa trip across Europe, from the Alps to the Atlantic Ocean, from Aosta to Dankerque, is one of the last opportunities for them to share an adventure together before their paths part. The on-the-road experience between Italy and France, however, turns into a ‘détour’ following a chance encounter with three Kurdish brothers on their way to England to be reunited with their families. This event will transform the meaning of their adventure, until they find themselves in Dankerque, on the English Channel (‘the great open sea of life’). For Goofy and Zebra, it will be an ‘initiatory’ journey, marking their passage from adolescence to adulthood and separating (momentarily?) their destinies.
Stefano Alpini is a filmmaker and lecturer in Visual Sociology and Filmmaking at the University of Pisa. His works include Il giocatore invisibile (2016), GiPi, l’ultimo terrestre (2011), Pinocchi e Lucignoli (2011) and Zarema e le altre (2010).