Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a comedy,
drama film from 2020, titled Rose Island. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
In November 1968, in the city of Strasburgo, Jean Baptiste Toma arrives at the Council of Europe,
ready to start his working day. After noticing a weirdly shaped car in the parking lot, he enters
the building and finds a sick man lacking winter clothes waiting at the bench, so he asks the guard
Gary about him. Gary explains the man is Italian Engineer Giorgio Rosa, who has been here all week,
and the weird car belongs to him too. Giorgio claims to be the head of a state, has brought a
file for the council to see, and won't leave until they do. In order to get rid of him, Jean makes a
big deal out of accepting the file from Gary and taking it to the office with him, but as soon as
he enters the room, he throws it in the trash. He changes his mind however, when he notices the file
has the UN logo on it. After reading what is on it, he urgently rushes Gary to send Giorgio to his
office so they can grant him an audience. Giorgio requests their help to save the island he's built,
but since Jean and his coworker are skeptical, he begins telling his story from the beginning.
A year ago, in Bologna, Giorgio is at a bar with his best friend Maurizio Orlandini and
other classmates celebrating their graduation from college. He leaves the celebration behind though,
when he suddenly sees his ex-girlfriend Gabriella and decides to invite her to have a drink with
him. Giorgio asks her about her boyfriend, who she is having a rough time with, and is surprised
to hear they've been together for three years, which is almost as long as Giorgio has dated her.
He thinks Gabriella's dad likes this guy, which frustrates him because the man has always hated
him, so Gabriella has to remind him the only reason why her dad hated him is that Giorgio
made his tv explode and never apologized to either of them. They start arguing over the tv and the
fact Gabriella may get married when she notices how late it is, so he offers to drive her home.
They take the car Giorgio himself has built, which impresses Gabriella, and the two of them actually
manage to chat happily even when she admits they broke up because dating him is too risky.
A moment later, they are stopped by the police, who point out the car has no license plate.
When asked for papers, Giorgio gives them an ID, but he doesn't have a driving license
either - all this lack of responsibility makes Gabriella angry. After checking his records,
the police find out Giorgio also has a criminal record: a flying ban to be precise,
because he tried flying an unregistered plane he built himself too. When an officer gets in his
car to confiscate it, Giorgio freaks out, so he gets arrested and spends the night in jail. The
following morning, he's bailed out by his father Ulisse Rosa, who wishes his son acted normal.
He's found a job for Giorgio: engineer for a very famous motorbike racer, but Giorgio isn't happy
with the idea, so after a very sarcastic thanks, he gets out of the car and leaves his dad behind.
Next, he goes to see Gabriella, who is teaching a class about natural law and
how things that are legal aren't always right. When she sees him enter the classroom though,
she cuts the class short after only ten minutes so she can talk to him in private. She's furious
because now she has a record, and that may bite her in the rear when she tries to get tenure.
Giorgio's apology is lackluster and he'd rather talk about the moment they had in the car,
but Gabriella turns him down, saying that he isn't a genius, that his inventions only get
everyone in trouble, and that if he wants a world without rules he should build his own.
Giorgio doesn't get it's a metaphor and actually considers the idea. Three months later,
Giorgio has accepted to work for the motorbike racer, although he hates it because it doesn't
challenge his mind. While holding a sign for the racer to know about a change in strategy, he gets
distracted by a billboard showing an oil platform, which inspires him with a brand new idea. However,
this also means the racer doesn't get to read the sign and ends up crashing, so he punches
Giorgio in the face for it. Sometime later, Giorgio goes to visit Maurizio, who is trying
to convince his father that it was his employees that have been stealing money from the company,
when it's actually been him. In private, Giorgio tells him he wants to build his own island, and
since a natural one is impossible, they can build one with metal following an oil platform design.
They can go to international waters, too, that way nobody will have the power to stop them. Maurizio
doesn't hesitate to join the project, since he's tired of working for his father's shipyard.
The next step is going to see how an oil platform is built and they learn they use around thirty
pillars of reinforced concrete foundation and an underwater concrete injector. All this plus the
workers they would hire would require an insane amount of money, and to make the matters worse,
they would need a special cargo ship to transport all the pillars. But Giorgio gets an idea and he
shows it to Maurizio with a small metal flask in his bathtub: steel does float if you hollow
it. They could transport hollow pillars to the location of their choice by making them float
behind a boat, and once they get there, they can fill them with water to make them sink again.
They try the plan a few days later after Maurizio gets the money by stealing from his dad again and
it works, even if Giorgio does get scared for a moment thinking his friend may've sunk with
the pillars. Back in the present, more and more Council members keep appearing in the office,
fascinated by the story. They're a bit skeptical to hear these two guys transported some pillars,
installed them on the seabed, and built a giant platform without getting anyone's attention.
Giorgio explains that they didn't but only at first, then goes back to his story.
To be an independent island, you need to have your own fresh water, so they successfully install a
drill that provides them with it. The giant drill tower gets the attention of the coastguard, who
thinks their tower is a transmitting antenna used for the illegal occupation of public airwaves.
But as soon as they explain they're just drilling for water, they're left alone, since that's not
illegal. Sometime later, when the platform is finally done, Maurizio returns with the workers
to the mainland, but Giorgio decides to stay his first night on the new island - only he, the sea,
a radio, and some coffee. Things go well at first, but soon it starts raining, which Giorgio
thinks he can avoid by standing under his beach umbrella. However, in the middle of the night, the
light rain becomes a full storm with tall waves that keep hitting the platform and a strong wind
that blows away his umbrella. It's during this storm that a boat approaches the island asking
for shelter, and that's how Pietro Bernardini, a cast-away welder, becomes the first resident.
Back in the present, Giorgio's little meeting has become a full audience with the entire
Council of Europe. A secretary is introducing the ministers to residents of the island:
after talking about Pietro, he brings up Wolfgang Rudy Neumann, a PR manager for beach clubs. He
lost his German citizenship when he deserted from the army, but since he entered Italy illegally,
he doesn't have an Italian citizenship either - he's stateless. Returning to the story, Rudy is
shown working at a club when he overhears the news about two guys building an island, so he decides
to visit them. After hearing their explanation about building a new world, Rudy accepts to
stay as the island's PR manager and begins promoting the place as a tourist destination.
Soon the news of a lawless place reaches all of Europe, and people from all over come to the
island to party - the timing is perfect, too, because 1968 is the year of a series of riots
in France that everyone wants to escape from. Rudy even tells Giorgio of Esperanto, which they
adapt as the island's official language and rename the place from Steel Island to Rose Island, which
Maurizio doesn't like very much because it leaves him out. The island becomes so big and famous that
they start appearing on the news, and that's how Franca learns about them. After discovering she's
pregnant and understanding she can't tell who the father is because she's had too many flings,
she goes to the island and demands a job as a bartender. The men give her the job, getting
excited because her baby will be the first native island resident. One afternoon, after dismissing
Maurizio's gambling ideas, Giorgio is shocked to see Gabriella has come to visit him. She
isn't impressed by the island though, she thinks it's just a disco and not an actual state. After
telling Giorgio that she's getting married, she leaves, refusing the invitation to stay the night.
Later that night, Rudy and Maurizio argue over their ideas: Rudy wants to start a water-skiing
competition while Maurizio wishes they could have gambling tournaments. Giorgio's mind however,
is still stuck on what Gabriella said, so he tells his friends that he wants to be recognized as
a real state. They have currency, stamps, postal service, and an official language - the only thing
they're missing is a government. Giorgio declares himself to be the president, Franca the minister
for economic affairs, Pietro for surveillance and defense, Rudy secretary of state, and Maurizio
shall cover internal affairs. To make it official, they send a letter with the request to the UN,
who contact the Italian government, and that's how two special agents end up visiting the island.
Some days later, the Italian Council of Ministers is having their usual meeting
when Prime Minister Giovanni Leone is given the news about the island by minister Franco Restivo,
who has been hiding the fact the Secretary-General of the UN has called them about this two days ago.
Furious, Giovanni demands to know why they haven't done anything about it,
so Franco explains he's sent two agents to the island that haven't returned after forty hours.
After the meeting is over, said agents finally call, confessing they had been mesmerized by
the freedom of the island, even causing one of them to cheat on his wife. Later in the evening,
Franco appears on tv saying the government is working on disposing of the island - this is
seen by Gabriella and Giorgio's parents. Franco's little speech however, has the opposite effect of
what he wanted: dozens of letters begin arriving at the island, asking for a citizenship. Sometime
later, Giorgio returns to the mainland to have lunch with his parents, but Ulisse doesn't let
him buy him a lobster because he worries the money the island is making may be illegal.
Giorgio invites them to come and see the island, but they turn down the offer with a silly excuse.
Afterward, he is approached by Franco's agents and offered to have two beach bars of his own in
exchange for him dropping the island. Giorgio of course refuses and leaves without uttering
another word. Later that night, they close the island to outsiders so the five of them can
have an important talk. It's been decided that they'll finally start handing out citizenships,
and the first passport, which just got printed, is for Rudy, who never had one. Meanwhile,
Giovanni is having a meeting at the Vatican with a very important cardinal that asks him to
do something about the island soon because it's appearing in the newspapers and they can't hide
it from the Pope, who will not approve of such rebel ideas. When he returns to the Chigi Palace,
he discovers dozens of letters have arrived from people asking to cancel their Italian citizenship,
and similar requests are happening in governments around the world.
Nervous and upset, Giovanni orders Franco to solve this problem as soon as possible if he doesn't
want to suffer the consequences. This results in an agent visiting Ulisse at work. In the meantime,
at the island, things are quiet because it's raining - not exactly party weather.
Maurizio wants to start planning something to do for when summer ends and is shocked to hear Rudy,
Franca, and Pietro are leaving, but Giorgio quickly catches on to what's going on: unlike him,
his friends did take the offer from the agents. Sad and betrayed, Giorgio goes to visit Ulisse,
who has been fired from work under saying his performance hadn't been good when he had been
nothing but an excellent, obedient worker. Not wanting his son's education to go to waste and
disappointed by the dirty tactics the government is pulling, Ulisse encourages Giorgio to turn down
the deal and fight for his island. Giorgio goes to see Gabriella, finding her at the movies with
her fiance. He wants her to be his lawyer in this legal fight he's about to start, but she refuses.
She points out he shouldn't have written to the UN since he may be on international waters
but he's still an Italian citizen, and if he wants to achieve anything, he should visit the
Council of Europe, so he does exactly that after taking his car back from the impound
lot and stealing a license plate from another vehicle not to be stopped by the police again.
And that's how he's here now, in front of the whole Council, telling his story. Once he's done,
he's asked to wait in the lobby while the Council decides how to proceed. Meanwhile in Italy, Franco
is congratulating his agents for having managed to buy off all the island's residents when the news
of Giorgio being with the Council is brought to him. Giorgio is currently being congratulated by
Jean, who informs him his story has impressed the Council and they have accepted to review his case,
but their talk is interrupted by Franco calling the lobby, demanding to talk to Giorgio. He
picks up the call, and after they argue for a while about what it means to found a state,
Giorgio tells him about the Council having accepted to analyze his case. This makes
Franco desperate, so threatens to use Italy's military arsenal to blow the island to pieces.
Seeing as the island is now in danger, Giorgio rushes back to Italy to try to save it, only
stopping on the way to call his mom, who doesn't care much about hearing the island problems. In
the meantime, Gabriella is shopping for her wedding cake when she notices the shop sells
souvenirs shaped like the island, which makes her reconsider what she's doing with her life.
She decides not to get married and goes to the port to join Giorgio in his boat and go together
to Rose Island. Once there, she asks him if it's true that he built the island for her, then she
kisses him. The following morning, they're woken up by the noise made by an Italian Navy battleship
approaching them. In Chigi Palace, Franco asks Giovanni to authorize the attack. Giovanni at
first thinks he's joking, but when he realizes he's being serious, he refuses, not wanting to
sign an act of war. Franco reminds him he asked him to fix the issue by any means necessary and
informs him that Giorgio has been heard by the Council of Europe, so they have no other choice.
There's a commotion on the mainland as well: curious bystanders and all news outlets are coming
to the shore to see the explosion. When Rudy, who is about to close his deal, hears about this,
he leaves the bar and finds Maurizio to ask him to join him in going back to defend the island.
Maurizio thinks they can't because they aren't allowing boats to enter the water, but Rudy
has an idea. That's how the two of them, Franca and Pietro enter the water-skiing competition,
only to drive away in the middle of the race to return to the island. Thinking the navy is just
trying to scare them, the six of them stand on the edge of the island holding hands, only to be
surprised by the admiral shooting the cannons now that they have Giovanni's authorization. It's only
a warning shot, so after the initial shock, the group goes back to the edge to stand their ground.
The second shot lands much closer to the island, but this still isn't enough to make them come
back, so the admiral sends his soldiers to raid the island and arrest the group. While
Giovanni and Franco appear on the news as heroes, Giorgio's parents follow the case on the radio,
and Jean reluctantly throws away the island's file, the group is taken away in the navy's ship
and Giorgio can only watch as bombs are put on the pillars and the island is blown up.
Afterward, he apologizes to Gabriella for what he did to her dad's tv, but she tells him that
doesn't matter anymore, what matters is to change the world. Without the island existing anymore,
the Council of Europe couldn't close the case. To prevent this from happening again, the UN
moved the border of international waters from six to twelve nautical miles all around the world.
To this day, the destruction of Rose Island remains the only invasion perpetrated by Italy.
Giorgio and Gabriella got married, and lived together for the rest of their lives.