Mid-August lunch

Gianni Di Gregorio was almost 60 in 2008, and the Italian only had a few movie industry credits. They began a decade earlier when he worked as an assistant director and small-part actor on Matteo Garrone's Guests, the indie writer-director's award-winning docudrama about Albanian immigrants.

Di Gregorio became an occasional member of Garrone's movie-making team, most notably when he co-wrote the screenplay of Gomorrah, a docudrama tragicomic study of Italian criminals. It garnered 40 award nominations (including the 2008 Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Foreign Film) and 23 wins.

Garrone produced Di Gregorio's debut writing-directing feature, a short (70-minute) tale about four very old ladies, which also premiered in 2008. The low-budget movie, filmed in the apartment where Garrone had taken care of his own ageing mother, is an Italian equivalent of Mike Leigh's British docudramas. It uses natural light, unflattering close-ups, non-professional actors and well-planned improvisations to depict the lives of ordinary people reacting to special situations.

Di Gregorio kept his budget very low by casting himself as the late-middle-aged man housekeeping and cooking for his spirited nonagenarian mother. His apartment building's manager and doctor both ask him to erase his debts to them by looking after their mothers too during Italy's mid-August public holiday (Ferragosto). One of them brings her sister along, filling his small home with a quartet of very individualistic old ladies.

He prepares meals for and with them, handles their temper tantrums, gets help from a drinking buddy on the farewell lunch, and happily agrees to extend the rejuvenated visitors' holiday. The fable steers clear of sentimentality, allowing the old women to show personality flaws and facial antiquity. Their gathering turns into a seniors' pyjama party without being overly cute or artificially comic. This isn't an Italian Golden Girls, but neither is it earnest neo-realism. Well photographed, edited and designed, this could have also been an old-style BBC TV drama.

Gregorio found two of the old ladies in his family and the other two in an old folks' home. He is a charming, convincing central figure for their narrative, and it's hoped he and the Garrone team are able to make other indie movies that illustrate real Italian lifestyles.