Rose Island

The "Rose" of ROSE ISLAND is Giorgio Rosa (Elio Germano), a quirky recent graduate in engineering from Rimini, Italy. He hates rules. He hates doing what he's told. When he builds a car, then drives around without a registration, the car is impounded. That does it for him, and he goes off to build his own country. Gabriella (Matilda De Angelis), the ex-girlfriend that got away, humors him but is already engaged to a less problematic guy. Still Giorgio pines for her and in some sense builds the island to prove he's a can-do guy. Apart from his understanding of engineering principles, he doesn't seem to understand much about living life. He's often told he lives in his own world, so when he wistfully shares his vision of creating his own truly free country with Maurizio (Leonardo Lidi), a fellow young engineer and alcoholic, Maurizio becomes Giorgio's partner. When word gets out of the island, a beach disco manager named Rudy (Tom Wlaschiha), who lost his German passport for deserting during World War II, motors out to the island to introduce himself. With a little enterprise, Rudy turns the platform into a money-making summer destination complete with alcohol, dancing, and girls in bikinis. The Catholic church worries the lax morals in a place so near to Italy may spread and undermine the status quo. Plus Italian ministers don't want to allow a "government" to set up only six miles off-shore. Giorgio appeals to the United Nations for sovereign status and petitions the European Council to protect him from Italy's threats. As happened in real life, the Italian government moved swiftly and fired warning shots on the island from a battleship. Will Giorgio lose his hard-earned freedom?