In 1936 Italy, Elio returns home from Africa with a present for his wife in the form of Zerbal, the daughter of a tribal king. Unbeknown to him, his neglected wife Alessandra has formed a relationship with Elio’s otherwise frigid secretary Velma who is less than pleased at Elio’s return.

This is an exposition of the social and political history of renaissance Florentine history, told through dramatized conversations between the main participants, Cosimo de Medici and Brunelleschi.

7 segments about life in 1990s Italy: two MPs from the opposite sides of the political spectrum spend the night together; during their honeymoon, a woman cheats on her husband with her favorite soap opera star; a married man pretends to be ill to seduce his younger nurse; a family discovers that their son's beautiful fiancée is transgender; an unsatisfied single woman is duped by her celebrity cru...

Italian writer and screenwriter Tonino Guerra's journey to discover Yugoslavia, from the big cities to the heart of its countryside, between a past of traditions and ancient rituals and a future still to be built. Filmed in 1979, the reportage in the then still united country has the flavour of both an intimate diary and a detailed travel documentary.

Cemetery watchman, Francesco Dellamorte, is tasked with dispatching the recently deceased when they rise from their graves.

Enrico Bottini, an engineering student, prepares to serve as an officer when Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. At the train station, he meets Garrone, an old friend from elementary school, and begins to reminisce on the values instilled to him by both school and his father.

Director Maurizio Nichetti is invited on TV to introduce a screening of his neo-realist classic 'The Icicle Thief'. He is horrified to discover that his black-and-white tale of life in poverty is constantly interrupted by garish color commercials, and even more horrified when a power cut in the studio causes film and commercials to mix up – a glamorous model finds herself in the arms of an unemplo...

Cemetery watchman, Francesco Dellamorte, is tasked with dispatching the recently deceased when they rise from their graves.

In 1930s Italy, a wealthy Jewish family tries to maintain their privileged lifestyle, hosting friends for tennis and parties at their villa. As anti-Semitism intensifies under Fascism, they must ultimately face the horrors of the Holocaust.

Claudio Scanna is a private in the Italian army: during his first night in a new military base he gets in a fight with senior recruits. Lieutenant Fili, Claudio's commanding officer, is denied a promotion because his superiors discover he was absent without justification during the night of the fight. Fili blames Claudio and vows to make his remaining months in the service a living hell...

In Caro papá, Dino Risi is telling the story of the decadent lifestyle, and dysfunctional family, of a wealthy businessman (played to perfection by Risi's favorite leading man, Vittorio Gassman). Risi paints his portrait against a backdrop of an Italy where the new permissiveness has run rampant, traditional socio-cultural values have been usurped by consumerism, and the streets have become an ope...

Maurizio works in a dubbing studio and puts sound effects into cartoons. One day his hands turn into cartoon ones, with a life of their own.