14-year-old Pio (Pio Amato) comes from a Roma family community, who live in several tower blocks in a town on the Italian coast. There aren’t many opportunities for them, which means they stick together even more. Pio idolizes his older brother Cosimo (Damiano Amato) and follows him wherever he goes. But when Cosimo and his father are sent to jail, it’s suddenly up to Pio to provide for himself and his family. He starts out by committing crimes – some small, some larger – and selling his loot for cash.
But he doesn’t feel bad about it, for Pio it’s a completely normal way to feed his family. And in the hustle and bustle of the port town of Gioia Tauro, neither the characters nor the camera can keep their distance.
Told in loud, brash images, A CIAMBRA turns a marginalized community into the center of the world.