Hotel Gagarin

Five Italian filmmakers are sent to Armenia to shoot a film, hoping it will be their big break. When they arrive, a war breaks out and their crooked producer vanishes along with all their money. Now abandoned in the secluded Hotel Gagarin and buried under snow, the team finds an original and unexpected opportunity of unforgettable happiness. A crooked producer dupes five hopeful Italians into traveling to Armenia to shoot a film. Nicola (Giuseppe Battiston) a rumpled history teacher, can’t believe his script will actually be produced. He travels to Armenia with a ragtag cast and crew, unaware that he is really part of a scam to get European Union funding. Franco Paradiso, the nefarious producer, sets the gullible Nicola up with Valeria (Barbora Bobulova), a Russian-Italian location scout, and Patrizia (Silvia D’Amico), an actress Franco “discovered” on the street. Rounding out the motley crew are Elio (Claudio Amendola), an electrician who has never worked on a film; and Sergio (Luca Argentero), a handsome cinematographer on the lam from mobsters. This fine ensemble cast shines when a civil war maroons the group for months in what was supposed to be a shooting location, the secluded, wintry Hotel Gagarin. There, they find unexpected opportunities for creativity and happiness, fashioning short films based on the dreams of the local villagers. (Tiburon International Film Festival)