The Way We Laughed (1998)

Gianni Amelio directed this powerful drama that focuses on the relationship between two brothers as their goals and ideals drift apart over the course of seven years, each of which is represented by a single day. Giovanni (Enrico Lo Verso), an uneducated laborer from Southern Italy, arrives in Turin, where his younger brother Pietro (Francesco Guiffrida) is studying to be a teacher. Giovanni sees the bright Pietro as his family's best hope for making their way out of poverty, and he goes to work to support his brother so that Pietro can focus on his studies. But as time goes on, Giovanni's simple dream of a better life proves to be different than Pietro's personal ambitions, and as the corruption of the city begins to sink its hooks into Pietro, their fates take a tragic and dangerous turn. Cosi Ridevano won the Golden Lion award at the 1998 Venice Film Festival, but despite enthusiastic reviews in Europe, the film did not receive an American release until 2001.