# Solino
**Solino** is a 2002 German-Italian immigration drama directed by [Fatih Akin](https://www.edgepedia.org/fatih-akin), written by Ruth Toma, and starring Barnaby Metschurat and Moritz Bleibtreu as two brothers in an Italian family that opens the first pizzeria in Germany's Ruhr district.[1](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/) The film follows the Amato family across three decades, from their arrival in the Ruhr in 1964 to a reunion in Italy in the mid-1980s, and takes its title from the family's home village in southern Italy.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / screenplay | Fatih Akin; screenplay by Ruth Toma[1](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/) |
| Year and countries | 2002, Germany and Italy[1](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/) |
| Release | World premiere 23 September 2002 at the Hamburg Filmfest; German theatrical release 7 November 2002; Austrian release 10 January 2003[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) • [3](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/2621/) |
| Technical data | 124 minutes, 35 mm, 1:1.85, color, Dolby Digital; rated FSK 12 in Germany[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) |
| Main cast | Barnaby Metschurat (Gigi), Moritz Bleibtreu (Giancarlo), Antonella Attili (Rosa), Gigi Savoia (Romano), Patrycia Ziolkowska (Jo), Tiziana Lodato (Ada)[4](https://www.kulturportal.de/en_EN/films/solino.5847) |
| Awards | Bayerischer Filmpreis 2003 for Metschurat (best young actor) and Ruth Toma (best screenplay); Gilde deutscher Filmtheater 2003 Filmpreis in Silber; FBW rating "Besonders wertvoll"[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) |
| Production | Wüste Film West with Wüste Filmproduktion, WDR/ARTE, Bavaria Film, and Multimedia Film- und Fernsehproduktion; distributed by X Verleih[1](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In 1964, Romano and Rosa Amato leave their sunny home village of Solino in southern Italy with their two young sons, Gigi and Giancarlo, to find work in the gray Ruhr district. Romano first takes mining work, then quits the mine, and the family opens the first pizzeria in the Ruhr, naming it after their home village.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) The pizzeria succeeds, becoming a meeting point for guest workers and locals alike.[5](https://www.uni-due.de/literarikon/akin_werkcharakteristika)
The younger son, Gigi, is quiet and sensitive; a local photographer introduces him to photography and then to filmmaking, and his ambition becomes to direct films.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) The older brother, Giancarlo, adapts more easily to the new surroundings but grows jealous of his more popular younger brother.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) Ten years on, the family has broken apart: the brothers share a flat with their friend Johanna (Jo) and both fall in love with her, Romano keeps a German mistress, and Rosa is diagnosed with an incurable illness and wants to return home.[6](https://www.fernsehserien.de/filme/solino)
Gigi accompanies his mother back to Solino even though the premiere of his first film at a short film festival is imminent. Giancarlo, who promised to stand in for his brother, instead accepts the festival prize in Gigi's place and conceals the success from him. After this betrayal the brothers fight, and for the first time the younger defeats the older; Gigi returns to Italy.[6](https://www.fernsehserien.de/filme/solino)
In the mid-1980s, Giancarlo visits Solino for the first time, at Gigi's wedding to his childhood love Ada. Gigi now runs the village cinema, the "Cinema Nuovo", and screens his latest short film outdoors; the film, a comic story about village life, is a great success, while Giancarlo, a moderately successful television writer in Germany, sits alone and grows quieter.[6](https://www.fernsehserien.de/filme/solino) Romano, whose pizzeria has lost its guests to new competition, has failed, though he will not admit it on the telephone.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de)
## Production
The screenplay came from the Hamburg writer Ruth Toma. Akin said in a director's statement that his producer Ralph Schwingel brought him the script, that he was initially skeptical because he knew no Italians, did not speak Italian, and knew little of the 1960s and 1970s, but that he was captivated from the first page and had tears in his eyes when he finished it.[4](https://www.kulturportal.de/en_EN/films/solino.5847) Akin drew on his own knowledge of guest workers and their children, material he had already used for the documentary about his parents, *Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren*; like Gigi, he had dreamed of making films as a boy.[7](https://www.filmszene.de/node/2613)
The Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen decided on 5 April 2001 to support the production with DM 2,400,000 (EUR 1,082,368), one of ten projects funded in that round.[8](https://www.filmstiftung.de/aktuelles/engel-und-immigranten-am-set-in-nrw) Further funding came from the Filmförderungsanstalt, Filmförderung Hamburg, and the EU MEDIA program.[1](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/) The film was shot largely in Duisburg and in the Italian village of Leverano, where a large part of the villagers played themselves.[7](https://www.filmszene.de/node/2613) Rainer Klausmann was the cinematographer, [Andrew Bird](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrew-bird) the editor, and Jannos Eolou composed the music.[3](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/2621/)
Most of the dialogue is Italian with German subtitles. Apart from Moritz Bleibtreu, who had lived in Rome and Venice and speaks fluent Italian, several German actors, including Barnaby Metschurat, first had to learn Italian before acting in it.[7](https://www.filmszene.de/node/2613)
## Setting: Duisburg or Oberhausen
Sources disagree on where the Amatos settle. The production company's synopsis places the family in [Oberhausen](https://www.edgepedia.org/oberhausen), where they open the first pizzeria of the Ruhr district.[1](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/) Filmportal, the FILMSTARTS synopsis, and the University of Duisburg-Essen's work description all name Duisburg as the destination.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) • [9](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/53305.html) • [5](https://www.uni-due.de/literarikon/akin_werkcharakteristika) The city of Oberhausen notes that the real first pizzeria of the Ruhr district stood in Oberhausen, at the corner of Mülheimer Straße and Falkensteinstraße, and that the film's story touches the city directly.[10](https://www.oberhausen.de/de/index/rathaus/aktuelle-pressemeldungen/meldungen_2026/weg_zum_nachbarn_.php?pagePresse=1)
## Themes and reception
Akin framed the film around the writer [Max Frisch](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-frisch)'s famous quotation, "We called for guest workers, and human beings came."[11](https://www.cinema.de/film/solino%2C89883.html) In a 2002 interview he described its subject as the way the temperament of the motherland is lost in the second generation and melts with the German spirit.[12](https://www.esiweb.org/pdf/The%20Great%20Debate%20-%20Germany%2C%20Turkey%20and%20the%20Turks%20-%20Part%201%20-%20Intellectuals%20-%20October%202010.pdf) The film's visual design ties light to place: Italy is shown as lively and colorful, Duisburg as gray and dark.[5](https://www.uni-due.de/literarikon/akin_werkcharakteristika)
Critics received it as an attempt at a German migration epic. A scholarly study records that the production's publicity promoted it as "the immigration epic" and a film about the history of labor migration to the Federal Republic, but argues that the label fits poorly, since the world of labor, central to millions of migrants, is largely overlooked; the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung critic Andreas Kilb wrote that the historical substance had evaporated in the film.[13](https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/ploneimport_derivate_00012466/document%2811%29.pdf) The same study notes the film could have become a central place of memory for German post-war migration history, comparable to the television series *Roots* for [African Americans](https://www.edgepedia.org/african-americans), but did not manage to do so.[13](https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/ploneimport_derivate_00012466/document%2811%29.pdf)
The film has remained in public memory as a portrait of the Ruhr as a region of immigration. In February 2026 the Lichtburg-Filmpalast in Oberhausen screened it in the film series "Weg zum Nachbarn – Stadt.Geschichte.Film.", followed by a discussion of identity, migration, and cultural change.[10](https://www.oberhausen.de/de/index/rathaus/aktuelle-pressemeldungen/meldungen_2026/weg_zum_nachbarn_.php?pagePresse=1)
## Release record
The film premiered on 23 September 2002 at the Hamburg Filmfest, opened in German cinemas on 7 November 2002, was released on DVD on 4 September 2003, and had its first television broadcast on Arte on 28 January 2005.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) Runtime figures differ between databases: filmportal lists 124 minutes, Movieplayer 114 minutes, and Kulturportal 102 minutes.[2](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de) • [14](https://movieplayer.it/film/solino_35382/) • [4](https://www.kulturportal.de/en_EN/films/solino.5847)
## References
1. [Solino, Wüste Film West (production company page)](https://www.wuestefilm-west.de/filme/solino/)
2. [Solino, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/solino_258addf7e0e54ea09c916b17953054de)
3. [SOLINO di Fatih Akin, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/it/film/2621/)
4. [Solino, Kulturportal](https://www.kulturportal.de/en_EN/films/solino.5847)
5. [Fatih Akin: SOLINO, Werkcharakteristika, Universität Duisburg-Essen](https://www.uni-due.de/literarikon/akin_werkcharakteristika)
6. [Solino, fernsehserien.de](https://www.fernsehserien.de/filme/solino)
7. [Solino, Filmszene](https://www.filmszene.de/node/2613)
8. [Engel und Immigranten am Set in NRW, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW](https://www.filmstiftung.de/aktuelles/engel-und-immigranten-am-set-in-nrw)
9. [Solino, FILMSTARTS.de](https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/53305.html)
10. [Weg zum Nachbarn – Stadt.Geschichte.Film. „Solino" in der Lichtburg Oberhausen, Stadt Oberhausen](https://www.oberhausen.de/de/index/rathaus/aktuelle-pressemeldungen/meldungen_2026/weg_zum_nachbarn_.php?pagePresse=1)
11. [Solino, cinema.de](https://www.cinema.de/film/solino%2C89883.html)
12. [Planet Interview with Fatih Akin, 16 October 2002, in ESI, The Great Debate: Germany, Turkey and the Turks](https://www.esiweb.org/pdf/The%20Great%20Debate%20-%20Germany%2C%20Turkey%20and%20the%20Turks%20-%20Part%201%20-%20Intellectuals%20-%20October%202010.pdf)
13. [Looking for »Lieux de Mémoire« in Germany's Immigration Society, perspectivia.net](https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/ploneimport_derivate_00012466/document%2811%29.pdf)
14. [Solino (2002), Movieplayer.it](https://movieplayer.it/film/solino_35382/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2000 to 2002 › Comedies of 2001*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license