London based Italian Actors + Writers Anna Elena Pepe + Marco Gambino Launch TOTÒ & DAIANA (Calcio, caffè e Fish & Chips)

London based Italian actors and writers Anna Elena Pepe and Marco Gambino are launching the original and very funny sketch comedy called “Totò and Daiana (Calcio, Caffè e Fish & Chips)”.

The series is written in collaboration with renewed Italian Author Ciccio Bozzi, directed by Riccardo Sai, and set entirely in London.

The project explores the lives of two Italians in London during the uncertainties that Brexit brought. They probably wouldn’t have created a bond of friendship if they were not in a foreign country and in the state of solitude. Football fans or not, expats or not, Totò and Daiana represent every person who is looking for their place in the world. A place that turns out to be very different from what they imagined.

Totò (interpreted by Marco Gambino) is a renowned chef from Palermo who has worked in London for more than 30 years. Daiana (Anna Elena Pepe) is a hairdresser from Ferrara who has just moved to England.

One day their very different lives meet by chance in a Sicilian restaurant in London, when Daiana suddenly storms in. She urgently needs to find a television to watch the match of her city's team, SPAL, back in Serie A (the premier league) after 50 years.

It is the beginning of a strange friendship between two very different characters. They are different in age, social status and provenance, but united by the common fate of being Italians abroad... and united by Brexit.

Totò will involuntarily turn into Daiana’s "Pygmalion" and will introduce her to the new city and life. At the same time, thanks to Daiana, Totò will start seeing the world with a new light and will regain some of the enthusiasm he had lost after so many years of immigrant life.

The series develops through the stories of the many Italians abroad (the search for a job, a place to live and the fascinating relationship with a city like London and its inhabitants).

Authors: Anna Elena Pepe, Marco Gambino
Language: Italian
Actors: Marco Gambino, Anna Elena Pepe
Directed By: Riccardo Sai
Screenplay By: Anna Elena Pepe, Marco Gambino, Francesco Bozzi
Production Company: Mesago Film
Sound By: Emanuele Costantini
Photography By: Luca Rocchini
Grafic By: Luca Corgnali
Editing By: Paola D’Andrea

About MARCO GAMBINO
Actor/Author
Marco Gambino is an Italian actor who’s been working extensively in the UK and abroad. His career spans from theatre to television and films.

Marco has appeared in some of the most popular Italian and British television series including Young Montalbano, Emmerdale, The Boss of the Bosses, Squadra Antimafia, Romolo and Giuli.

Films include the International, il Traditore.

Marco is also known for a number of monologues which he interprets in more than one language: Words of Honour, Othello’s Guilt, Maria Callas the Black Pearl.

About ANNA ELENA PEPE
Actress/Author
Anna Elena Pepe is a bilingual Italian-English actress and writer who completed the prestigious program “European Act” organised by the Royal Academy in London and the Institute of Performing Arts in Paris. She has worked all over Europe with award winning filmmakers as Pupi Avati in “Un Viaggio di Cento Anni” (Rai1) and Johan Nijenhuis (“The Tuscan Wedding”). Current projects include the feature film “Il Ballo delle Meduse (Dancing Jellfish)” by director Aurelio Laino, the TV series ‘Interplay’ by Flaminia Graziadei and the campaign for clothing brand “Desigual” directed by Juan Costa.
As a writer, Anna has several projects in development in the UK and Italy.

About FRANCESCO BOZZI
Author
Francesco Bozzi (in arte Ciccio) is a renewed TV and radio Author, working since more than 20 years mostly for Italian presenter Rosario Fiorello, whom he wrote with endless tv theatre, radio shows (as Il Rosario della Sera , Viva Radiodue) and several commercials.

About RICCARDO SAI
Director
Riccardo Sai is a visual creator with wide experience in directing, photography and art. A graduate in History of Cinema at the DAMS of Bologna, Riccardo specialized at the London Film School. He has in portfolio projects for brands such as Nike, Microsoft, BBC, Enel, Nivea, Intesa Sanpaolo. He has significant collaborations with artists such as Wim Wenders, Luis Bacalov, Vivienne Westwood, Dita Von Teese, Shara Nelson, Gino Paoli and John Rankin. Riccardo is working on his first feature film Room 406.