Jeeg Robot, an Italian superhero

At Tor Bella Monaca, the rough suburbs of Rome, Enzo Ceccotti (Claudio Santamaria) finds out he has developed superpowers after falling in a barrel of radioactive waste. The daughter of his neighbour, Alessia (Ilenia Pastorelli), will identify him with Jeeg Robot (from the Japanese anime TV series Steel Jeeg, 鋼鉄ジーグ), on a mission to save humanity. Gabriele Mainetti's debut with a full-lenght film (after a couple of interesting short films, Basette and Tiger Boy, both inspired by anime series as well) offers a genuine interpretation of the superheroes genre. They Call Me Jeeg steps away from Hollywood blockbusters' rules, and uses them merely as a starting point towards a humorous and personal interpretation of them. Mainetti's approach seizes the audience's attention by laying out and exploring the human nature of this unusual superhero.

Still of Claudio Santamaria as Enzo Ceccotti © 2015 Lucky Red Above: detail from the movie poster

Yes, it is precisely the human dimension of the superhero that emerges and makes the story plausible. Enzo is rough, he mumbles, he could stay all day home eating yogurt and watching porn movies. He is always pissed off and has no real purpose, if not an immediate one: so he robs a ATM to get more yogurt and more porn, which means satisfying his basic and human primary needs. Afterwards, he is carried away by the events, just as it happens in life... We can relate to his flaws, to the fact that he is just another person and not necessarily the good guy. He is one of us, except for the fact that he has an exceptional force and cannot be killed by bullets. Anyways, he finds purpose in others, in Alessia, who is as broken as he is, and, as any superhero worthy of this name, in his nemesis, The Gypsy (an outstanding Luca Marinelli).

© 2015 Lucky Red

Now, this villain has the insanity of the Jocker and the thirst of power of the Penguin, and something more. He is just another criminal from Tor Bella Monaca, but not quite, since he is also a showman. He has been on TV, and holds on to the same dream many others have nowadays: becoming famous, doesn't metter how.

Mainetti's work has been awarded with 7 David di Donatello and, more importantly, it has been widely appreciated by Italian public. And one of the reasons lies in the way characters are built. As the director said (in an interview by Nocturno), "the character's dimension must be extremely convincing, otherwise you will not manage to convey the audience's emotions".

Director: Gabriele Mainetti Writer: Nicola Guaglianone, Menotti (Roberto Marchionni) Cast: Claudio Santamaria, Luca Marinelli, Ilenia Pastorelli, Antonia Truppo, Stefano Ambrogi, Maurizio Tesei, Francesco Formichetti, Daniele Trombetti, Salvatore Esposito, Gianluca Di Gennaro Year: 2015

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