Synopsis:

Fifty-year-old, Sardinian-born Silvio – a lover of jazz music and karaoke shows – manages the “Stella d’Oro” boarding house. Built on the Swiss side of Lake Maggiore more than a hundred years ago, the place has been accommodating less and less tourists, and a few asylum seekers. But its days are numbered: it is threatened by a property restoration project for a new private housing estate. Its few remaining days depict the passing of life in a place of encounter for the stories and dreams of people coming from different locations and cultures.

STELLA CIAO is the portrait of the last year and a half in the existence of a peculiar place, a unique slice of life as it was seized right before its destruction.

Film Director VITO ROBBIANI

Born in 1972, Swiss and Italian nationality. After university held in Nice (France) in Communication Science and Information, started working as a journalist and then as a filmmaker. Through his production company, mediaTREE, has collaborated with several European networks, in particular: Swiss TV (RSI), Euronews, alphaTV-Greece, RTVslovenia, RAI. He teaches audiovisual techniques and documentary at the University of Applied Sciences in Lugano-Switzerland (SUPSI). He is a member of the central committee of the Swiss Federation of Journalists (impressum)