Gene Gnocchi

In a Roman high school, a jaded art professor who lost the spark for the job clashes with an ex pupil of his, an adjunct literature teacher who is trying to rescue an eccentric and rebellious student, while the stern headmistress deals with a student from a difficult background.

Stefano, a philosophy grad student without a future, tries to commit suicide after his girlfriend leaves him. He is saved by Giulio, a wisecracking plumber who takes him home and teaches him the tricks of the trade. When Lucia, a woman disappointed in both men and conventional jobs who has started to work as a prostitute, calls them to repair a sink, for Stefano it's love at first sight.

During the 1994 general elections, a mechanic with a firm belief in communism, fearing that his party is about to lose, journeys to a northern village to instigate. He isn't there long before he encounters a beautiful hairdresser, with whom their debate is fiery as is his growing and impossible-to-hide passion for her. Although she too is intrigued with him, their disparate ideologies threaten to keep them apart.

The Sanremo Music Festival is the most popular Italian song contest and awards, held annually in the town of Sanremo, Imperia, Italy, and consisting of a competition amongst previously unreleased songs. The Festival was the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest.