The story
Adriano Bevilacqua is the owner of a dress shop in Bari who becomes involved in a difficult and dangerous situation. His lover, Serena Ilosovic, persuades him to borrow money from the powerful boss Sabino Armenise, in order to clear his gambling debts and to restore the fortunes of his shop.
The boss grants him the loan, but he demands the shop itself as security. When the shop is destroyed by a rival clan, the boss expects Adriano to work for him, in order to pay off his debt. But Bevilacqua is ineffectual and his superficial attitude gets him into trouble with the police resulting in long-term imprisonment. In the meanwhile Sabino discovers that his son is in love with Paola, Bevilacqua’s daughter. He takes Bevilacqua’s interests on himself, engaging one of the best lawyers in Bari.
Adriano is released but soon gets into trouble again. When he realizes that Leonardo, who was once a rival of Sabino, but now belongs to the Armenise clan, is the perpetrator of the dynamite attack on his shop, he decides to take revenge. He fails again and he is arrested, incurring in turn the anger of Leonardo whose gangsters lie in wait for him outside the prison, leaving him no way out.
The main character Adriano Bevilacqua is the new tragicomic mask of Bari, making his way through all situations and difficulties without losing his incurable naivety.
Bevilacqua is a simple minded man, an unfortunate person, who has no choice but to extricate himself from his difficulties. Comic gags and tragedy mingle in the narration, giving rise to absurd situations, and producing a surreal and irresistible story, which grips the spectator’s attention.
