Presented out of competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival My Tennis Maestro, was produced by Indiana Production, Indigo Film, and, Vision Distribution who will release it theatrically on 13 November.
Director Andrea Di Stefano has followed Last night of Amore with another collaboration with Pierfrancesco Favino who stars in a story of growth and sport, which is in part autobiographical: "I wanted to celebrate imperfect mentors with My Tennis Maestro, those figures with painful pasts and huge hearts, who are able to open eyes and change lives. When I was thirteen, a tennis coach told me a phrase that became my salvation. This Italian-style comedy is my attempt to pay homage to him".
Late 1980s. Thirteen-year-old Felice’s father wants him to become a tennis champion. He gets the chance to try in the summer and start competing in national tournaments. To achieve the goal, he trusts in the coaching of Raul Gatti, a self-proclaimed former champion who boasts a last 16 performance at the Italian Open.
The main characters are played by Tiziano Menichelli (Denti da squalo) and Pierfrancesco Favino in an unusual role that he describes as "so openly defeated"; the former burdened by the expectations for his future, the latter immersed in regrets from his past. Together they embark on a journey across the tennis courts of the Italian peninsula and, defeat after defeat, begin to glimpse, respectively, a glimmer of freedom and the possibility of a new beginning.
"Films about sport always tell stories about people who ultimately succeed, but that wasn't my story," says Di Stefano. "I always wondered if the story of someone who doesn't make it could be narratively sustained. Having experienced failure, I wanted to tell the story of heroism through two defeated people, one from the present and one from the past”.
In addition to Favino and Menichelli, the cast includes Giovanni Ludeno, Dora Romano, Paolo Briguglia, Valentina Bellè, Edwige Fenech, Chiara Bassermann, Roberto Zibetti, Fabrizio Careddu.
The film was shot in October and November 2024, with a crew of approximately 90.
The pair leave Rome on a journey that leads them gradually, match by match, to a new awareness of themselves and others as tennis, which first divides and then unites them, becomes a metaphor for life. Locations included Formia and Gaeta (Lazio), San Benedetto, Grottammare, Ancona, and the Riviera del Conero (Marche).
Defeats, lies, and strange encounters, help develop a bond between student and teacher that is both profound and unrepeatable, like those summers which come only once in a lifetime.