My Summer with the Shark

13-years-old Walter is off from school for the summer, still mourning the death of his father in a workplace accident. While idly wandering the {{ill|Roman coast|it|Litorale romano}}, he comes across by a seemingly abandoned villa with a grand swimming pool. He dives in, only to narrowly survive the encounter with a great white shark. Once the fear has passed, Walter comes back to the villa the following days to watch the shark. There he meets an older boy, Carlo, who explains to him he's the caretaker of the villa and the place belongs to a gangster known as Corsaro ({{literal translation|Privateer}}), who uses it as a hideout. Corsaro keeps the shark there as a symbol of his power since it devoured an opponent of his years ago. Carlo allows Walter to come back whenever he wants to in exchange for bringing food for the shark. To do so, Walter begins to steal money at home and sells his father's possessions, much to his mother Rita's chagrin.

Over the course of that summer, Carlo and Walter become friends. When Walter runs out of money, Carlo suggests robbing a butcher's shop: however, the plan backfires and Walter saves Carlo by threatening the butcher at gunpoint, then making him feed two carcasses to the shark. Impressed, Carlo introduces him to the other members of his gang. To allow Walter to join the gang, its leader Tecno has him deal drugs. After Rita finds out, Walter runs away from home, settling in the villa.

Carlo and Walter figure out the shark is suffering from captivity. While daydreaming about setting it free, they forget that to collect some money for Tecno, which ends up stolen. Although Walter takes the blame, Tecno beats Carlo to a pulp and kicks them both out of the gang: Carlo gets angry at Walter and leaves. The next day, Carlo takes the gang to the villa to see the shark, hoping to be reinstated. When the boys start mistreating the shark, Walter tries to stop them, but he gets beaten by Tecno. Just when he's about to die, Corsaro arrives, knocks Tecno down and throws everyone out of his villa. The gangster commends Walter for his bravery.

Walter returns to his mother and, helped by a repentant Carlo, manages to set the shark free into the sea.

• Tiziano Menichelli as Walter Di Santi
• Stefano Rosci as Carlo
• Virginia Raffaele as Rita, Walter's mother
• Edoardo Pesce as Corsaro
• Claudio Santamaria as Antonio, Walter's father
• Matteo Scattaretico as Tecno
• Roberto Fazioli as Biondo
• {{ill|Alberto Testone|it}} as Barracuda

The screenplay for My Summer with the Shark by Valerio Cilio and Gianluca Leoncini won the 2014 {{ill|Solinas Award|it|Premio Solinas}} as the best unproduced screenplay in Italy. Cilio and Leoncini however were unsatisfied with the script, which they originally wrote just in a couple of months, and continued to rework it for years, until Gabriele Mainetti became interested in the project and agreed to produce it through his company Goon Films. Mainetti decided not to direct the film himself because he wasn't "feeling the right emotional draw [to the story]", suggesting instead newcomer Davide Gentile based on his short film Food for Thought (2016). Other than acting as producer for another director for his first time, Mainetti also composed the score alongside his frequent collaborator {{ill|Michele Braga|it}}, in another first for him.

My Summer with the Shark had its premiere on 1 June 2023 as the opening gala of the 11th Etna Comics. It was theatrically released on 8 June 2023 by {{ill|Lucky Red|it}}, on 290 screens across Italy. It also played out of competition at the 53rd Giffoni Film Festival on 22 July 2023.{{Cite web|url=https://giffoni.it/dal-dolore-alla-rinascita-walter-ritrova-se-stesso/|title=My Summer with the Shark|date=22 July 2023|access-date=26 January 2025|website=giffoni.it|publisher=Giffoni Film Festival|language=it}}

Despited being released three days before the Ministry of Culture–sponsored "Cinema Revolution" initiative of €3.50 tickets for all European films, My Summer with the Shark was a box office bomb, grossing just €249,609 domestically on a budget of €3.5 million.

{{reflist}}

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Category:2023 films

Category:2020s coming-of-age drama films

Category:2023 crime drama films

Category:Films produced by Gabriele Mainetti

Category:Italian coming-of-age drama films

Category:Italian crime drama films

Category:2020s Italian films

Category:2020s Italian-language films

Category:Films about sharks

Category:Films about father–son relationships

Category:Films about juvenile delinquency

Category:Films set in Rome

Category:Films shot in Rome