"The 883 conquered us and the generations before us because they speak to everyone, they speak to everyone's dreams. Because they're not the cool kids, because they are us, because you root for the underdogs, because they were born in the wrong place, at the wrong time, so you can't help but root for them." This is what Elia Nuzzolo and Matteo Oscar Giuggioli told ANSA. The two actors play Max Pezzali and Mauro Repetto respectively in the second season of Sydney Sibilia's Sky dramedy 'Nord Sud Ovest Est - La leggendaria storia degli 883,' which will be released on October 9 and was the star of a special event at the Giffoni Festival.
Returning in the new episodes are Ludovica Barbarito (Silvia), Davide Calgaro (Cisco), Edoardo Ferrario (Pierpaolo), Roberto Zibetti (Claudio Cecchetto), Riccardo Armiento (Nemorino), joined by newcomers Gaia Zampighi (Michela Rossini) and Rosa Barbolini (Caterina).
Sibilia explains what to expect from this second chapter: "The conclusion of the story, the epic finale — compared to the first season it's even more fun, more romantic, much funnier, and even more punk because we really didn't hold back, so expect anything and everything..." At its core, as the series explains, "it tells the great coming-of-age story of these two young men and their most difficult challenge: growing up after success." The director is noted for his great passion for telling underdog stories: "I'm fascinated by characters who fight against an unfavorable destiny, against windmills, and look for a way to turn things around. Once again, as in 'Smetto quando voglio' and 'The Incredible Story of the Island of Roses' or 'Mixed by Erry,' these are outsiders, people who find a brilliant and unpredictable way to make their mark, to 'beat' the system. Stories of impossible dreams." There is also a personal dimension: "This story speaks a great deal to my own coming of age. Writing it, I asked myself questions that I only truly understood after finishing it. It seemed impossible that a man alone could create an independent island, that a deejay could be born in Forcella or a singer in Pavia, or even that a director could be born in Pastena in the Salerno area, like me..."
The 8-episode series picks up from 1993, the year of the album that definitively consecrated 883, and continues the journey begun with "Hanno ucciso l'Uomo Ragno - La leggendaria storia degli 883," one of the most-watched Sky Original productions of all time.
At the heart of the narrative: success, concerts, new loves, the American dream, and the transformations that put the bond between the two artists to the test. A world far removed from the lived experience of the two young lead actors, who found themselves feeling a certain nostalgia for the '90s. "Back then," Nuzzolo and Giuggioli explain, "there was the possibility of getting bored, of getting lost, of skipping school without your parents finding out immediately through the electronic register, of leaving the house without them being able to call you — a little more freedom, and in general a little slowness and uncertainty. Even just the idea of leaving the house and running into friends by chance at some spot, whereas today you message each other and already know you'll be meeting up. That's something we'd like to experience today."
Nuzzolo and Giuggioli, who spent 24 hours a day together for 7 months and became close friends in the process, believe that "Non me la menare" is the most representative and emblematic song by 883.
Among the most complex sequences to film, the director pointed to the scene in which the protagonists get lost before going to a party: "It was very didactic, it lasts a quarter of an hour, it's very funny, but it was the most difficult one for me." For Elia Nuzzolo, on the other hand, the most demanding challenge was the scene in which Max sees a ghost: "There are many funny scenes, but in that one I had to react to the appearance of a ghost, which is an objective difficulty for an actor."
There were also many amusing anecdotes from the set. Sibilia recalled with irony Matteo Oscar Giuggioli's first audition: "When he was asked to sing, the result was so unconvincing that it made him think, jokingly, that perhaps the series would never get made. Thanks also to his work with Ciro Caravano of Neri per Caso, however, the actor managed to build a very convincing performance." He also recalled how filming coincided with the anticipated birth of his child: "I was shooting at night in Pavia and every day I would call my wife, who had stayed in Rome, to find out whether labour had started before setting off again towards the set. In the end I made it in time."
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