This World Can't Tear Me Down (2023) s01e02 Episode Script

1
THIS WORLD CAN'T TEAR ME DOWN
YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO STOP EVERYTHING!
SPY-DERMAN
COMIC BOOK STORE
ARCADE
Rebibbia!
Stay calm.
You've got this.
Block. You're the master of this match.
Here, have a grape.
Loosen up your muscles. Relax.
Had some water?
Are you hydrated?
You had your supplements?
High punch, low punch. Done.
He's yours. You don't even break a sweat.
Turn forward and punch.
Turn forward and punch, come on.
Behind In fro Kick! Behind!
Forward, kick! Come on! Splatter him!
Splatter him! Yes!
If you win this,
you're facing the final boss.
Concentrate. Break his face.
You've been waiting 15 years for this.
Splatter him! Spl Splatter him
Turn forward and punch!
Get up! Get up, you bastard! Block!
Low kick! Oriuke!
Yes!
You've been preparing for this moment
your whole life. Spread your wings.
Do it for granny.
Do this for her.
You sold her dentures to get here.
Let's make sense of this pain.
You're in the God's Twilight.
Mind if I join?
My precious!
I'm right in the God's Twilight
Thanks.
Can you give me space?
It's the final boss.
You know how if you wait on the riverbank,
you'll eventually see
an air mattress going by
with your enemy's body on it?
This is what it refers to.
With a big bully who'd kick your ass
if you said anything,
it's best just to sit
on the riverbank and wait.
It can take some time.
Maybe in 60 years,
he's gotten old, broken his femur,
you see him and you scream,
"You piece of shit,
I was in the God's Twilight!"
Why would I say something? Isn't he dead?
That's why you say it, because he's dead.
My riverbank, however,
was always the arcade.
I didn't go too far.
I kept throwing money at it all afternoon.
I kept losing and was feeling frustrated.
I didn't even have a token
to finish that level.
But then, something strange happened.
Of all the mythological beasts
in the arcade,
I don't know why, but he chose me.
What did you say about the God's Twilight?
Look, I was never picked by anyone
to be in their team.
I was always left on my own
next to the dog with no hind legs
dragging itself along on wheels.
We'll take the dog!
If you leave us with that loser,
you owe us at least
a three-goal head start.
Okay, maybe there weren't
many people there at that time.
Apart from me,
there was just Emilio the maniac,
Osso the junkie,
and the Filipino guy always on the slots
with all his facial tics.
But he had chosen me.
He gave me the token I needed.
We finished the game together.
We were more than blood brothers.
It might have been the first time
in my life that I felt privileged.
Yes, you could argue
that I didn't really understand
how privilege worked.
But at 14, if you're not Angela Davis,
what the fuck do you know?
ARCADE
The next day, everything was normal.
I went out thinking,
"This is gonna be quick and easy."
I'd run out of yogurt,
that's all I needed.
I left my car in a specific spot
called "parking like a prick,"
because I thought, "I'll be in and out.
The supermarket ninja."
"I'll go in,
get the yogurt,
pay."
"You won't even see me. A puff of wind."
Then I don't know what happened,
but at some point,
I must admit, I let myself go.
Anyway, at some point, a lady said to me
The carts are behind the counter.
She actually might have said
You're going bald, you fucker.
Her gestures and non-verbal communication
could have been interpreted both ways.
But I think it was the carts
because that's where they were.
I'll admit, I thought about it.
I did get more things than
You're getting a cart
because the old lady told you?
Can't you see they do it on purpose
to wear you down?
It's like the serpent and the apple.
Mind your own fucking business!
That was a bit excessive.
Listen, carts are for old people.
It's like carrying a sign that says,
"I'm an old invalid
who can't carry a couple of jars."
It's like a carry-on.
When you swap a backpack for a carry-on,
you're the old lady from Downton Abbey.
Old, haughty, seems nice on TV,
but in real life,
you'd push her down the stairs.
I agree, but I've given myself 45 hernias
with my backpack.
Hernias are a concept that only exist
because Big Pharma invested
in the carry-on sector.
Before, if you had backache
you took two opium pellets, fuck it.
I can't. I've got
this straight-edge thing going on.
But look around you.
Can't you see that a shopping cart
is a symbol for parenting?
A puppet show of people
who go around with a stroller,
taking their goods for a walk.
How pitiful!
You're still young.
You're 39.
That's not for you.
Don't get ahead of yourself, come on!
So, the fact that people
were looking at me
didn't seem all that strange.
I thought, "They probably envy
the fact that I'm a Jenga champion
and I've built an obelisk of yogurt,
sausages, and pasta."
But instead
Zero, it's me, Maddalena!
Fucking hell,
she could've said so right away!
It was Maddalena, Cesare's mom.
I hadn't seen her for ages,
but she does live here.
She's been in Rome for 60 years,
but she still has
this strong Sardinian accent.
Probably genetic.
Impossible to change.
Maybe with surgery.
Anyway, respect.
Sardinia is a great nation. Revolution!
But I can't do the Sardinian accent.
I end up sounding like Yoda,
so don't be offended.
HONEY
Anyway, syntax aside,
he's a great Jedi knight.
Yesterday you saw each other,
told me he did. All happy he was.
I don't know what she said,
because 15 yards from me,
a little boy sneezed
which moved the air in such a way
that compromised
the stability of my installation.
SODA
I got scared. There's this clerk
with a weasel face who hates me
because every time
I stupidly don't get a cart,
I drop everything.
Two months ago, I spilled
70 liters of peach yogurt on the floor
and he cleaned it up without saying shit.
- I bet his boss said to him
- Sit tight.
The law of discount stores says
that we can't say shit
the first two times,
but on the third,
you can gut him with a fish knife.
This may be the third time.
I can see him waiting
and caressing something in his pocket.
Give him a hand, you can maybe?
With work, you mean? How can I help him?
I draw comics, I work at home on my own.
Maybe you think I'm an ass,
but I do have a sociopathic job
with no contact.
No! Just help him feel more at home.
Get him out and doing things.
Because he's a bit lost.
A lot of years gone by, they have.
Maybe when you go out, you can call him.
That's worse than work!
What am I going to do with him?
I'm not being mean, but I really
don't know how to look after people.
Every time someone says to me
I'm coming to Rome. Where are we going?
I get anxious.
I'd rather shoot myself in the knee.
Who am I? A Club Med rep?
Should I dress as a centurion
and show you the Colosseum
with a ball on my nose?
I'm boring,
I don't drink, I don't do coke,
I always suggest the cinema
because you don't have to talk.
Fine, this evening
come to dinner, you can.
Look, I've got everything
to make Sardinian seadas.
Of course. I can come and eat.
It's the only thing I can do.
Thank you. Very happy, Cesare will be.
I'm sure that good to him, it will do.
No, really, I'm glad too.
Guys, I'm begging you.
Don't let me go on my own.
We haven't spoken for 20 years.
I don't know what to say to him.
Please, come!
I have loads of work shit to do, sorry.
I have a meeting tonight
that I really can't miss.
That sucks! For the school thing?
Look, I love you, but I told you one thing
and 12 hours later, problems start.
I'm not superstitious,
but you're a bloody sniper!
One shot, one kill.
THE SNIPER
Let me scratch for luck.
Stop it, we're not
in the bloody Middle Ages!
Jokes aside, I don't believe
in these things, you know that.
But it costs nothing
to wait until it's all sorted.
I talked to my grandma this morning,
she loves all those old wives' tales
You talked about it with that jinx
who writes comics?
That one's worse
than Fukushima, I'm telling you!
If you want this job,
first you need to rub
two ounces of garlic on his face
and then shove a wooden stake
through his heart.
I guess your grandma never liked me.
Yes. She thinks
you and Secco are bad influences.
Sweetheart!
They made you sick
with your sexual tendencies!
Why do you still hang out with them?
Do you know where they went next?
No, I don't know, but I left.
I had stuff to do. It wasn't an excuse.
And you didn't hear them talk
about their plans?
What am I? Their carer? They're grown men.
But I'm a woman,
so I must take care of them?
Is that really the culture
in law enforcement?
Good job!
Anyway, no, I had shit to do.
That doesn't seem so far-fetched, does it?
Fine. Secco, can you come tonight?
No, I can't stand Cesare.
What do you mean?
You haven't talked to him for 20 years!
When I can't stand someone,
I can't stand them for 200 years.
It's another 180 years.
It's true. In general, Secco's feelings
have very long expiry dates
based on the life expectancy
of whales in Greenland.
This makes him very loyal,
but also very resentful.
I actually think
there was a bit of that jealousy
you get in friendship dynamics
when there's a new element,
and you can feel a bit left out.
Those teenage bittersweet moments
that have something tender about them,
but no one wants to admit it.
Like the boy in Stranger Things
with the bowl cut
who cries because his friend fucks Eleven.
Are you jealous? Are you scared
that he's going to be my new best friend?
That we'll leave
poor little you all alone?
- Come, don't be a pain.
- I don't give a shit.
I don't believe you. You. Are. Jealous!
Don't. Give. A. Shit.
Whatever. But come with me
to tear down those shitty posters.
They put them back up last night,
outside the subway.
They were different. Look, I took photos.
Inside me is a crazy archivist ghost
wanting to come out. Here.
These said that, along with the Nazis,
there would be residents too.
And the parents' committee.
It looked like real people.
It drove me crazy.
I'll go mad if I can't find out
who the fuck is supporting this.
We'll need to ask that person.
That person!
I don't know how it works elsewhere,
but here in Rome,
when you see outraged citizens
turning on foreigners and degradation,
they are often people involved in some
shady business and they're pissed off
because someone from another country
has intruded into their territory.
They single out people randomly,
and innocent people
get caught in the crossfire
just because
their skin is the wrong color.
But the war between Italian
and foreign dealers
doesn't win elections,
so they sell it to you as
The exasperated Italian
who can't take anymore
a symbol of that small old world
in which nobody locked their doors
Who's angry with all the foreigners
who have invaded us
and are preventing our children
from eating pork at school.
These 30 poor souls who just arrived
have nothing to do with this.
They're being used as a pretext.
But what the fuck do I know?
In truth, the only way to find out more
was to ask "that person,"
by going down into the depths of society,
into that molten darkness
abandoned by the state
where the only law is survival
The restaurant world.
Guys, be quick.
I clock back in in ten minutes.
Today the kitchen is on fire.
There are two of us and 70 bookings.
They're as hungry as the devil's locusts.
Lemur friend, one quick thing.
What do you know about this committee
against the migrant shelter?
Your people?
No, I read that too, but I don't know.
I don't talk to those people.
But us casual workers
in this business, subject to prohibition,
we have a group chat
where everyone is coming together.
I don't think anyone posted about it.
And I don't think
there's any conflict of interest
on that patch either.
My lemur friend is great.
I know you're the police,
and we can't have these chats.
But once, I met
an important government officer,
whom I'll represent here as a white swan
for the purity of his words.
The swan told me
Oh, Zerocalcare,
we would like to use your characters
in an institutional campaign
against horrible things and mean people.
Because I believe
they are positive examples
for our children,
in this corrupt world where
everyone talks about drugs and tripping.
I swear, I'm no liar.
He really asked me that.
I realized that, to him,
human beings under 40
fell into two categories.
On the one side, heinous drug traffickers
who shoot grannies
and throw puppies off bypasses.
On the other side, angelic boy scouts
who work all day,
and help toads cross the road
when they clock out.
I said to him
Look, sir, the real world
is a bit more complicated.
True, there are monsters.
But for example, I have a friend
who works her ass off at the local shop,
but she deals hash because
she can't afford the rent.
It's not all black and white.
So, my son is right
that when you say "ice cream,"
it's code for "ketamine"?
Sorry, a big table just arrived.
A whole gym.
I need to go.
It's like a war here. They're like ISIS,
but with Anna Tatangelo
instead of the Qur'an. Bye.
Bye!
We've learned nothing.
I have to go to Cesare's.
- Sure you're not coming?
- Yeah.
In 180 years' time.
I'll put a note on my phone.
It was the cartoon producer,
so I had to answer.
Hello?
Zero!
How are you?
When will you send us something?
Hi. Well, look
I've done the preliminary sketches
that I told you about.
I thought I'd already sent them.
They're basically done.
Not true! I haven't done shit.
I was as fake as a counterfeit coin.
In three days, I'll send them
an empty email and say,
"Didn't you get it?
Maybe because of the attachment."
That way, I get an extra week.
It's a balancing act
between psychological wear and tear
and breaking point.
Please
My Italian literature teacher
is still waiting for my essay.
Check. He said it might have gone to spam.
Oh, send them. Everyone's excited!
There's a lot of enthusiasm,
a lot of electricity!
I've never seen the team like this.
Apart from maybe when we made
that amazing documentary
about Koalas' retractable penises,
which we later took to Venice.
Look, I want to send them by the weekend
so we can start discussing,
if that's okay with you.
Mauro Crocodile
is interviewing me on Wednesday.
Of course!
We're sending you there
to push the project!
We'll create the hype!
The hashtag is ready!
#HESEEMEDDUMB
#HEISDUMB
Actually, I have a bit of an issue
with that show.
I wanted to talk to you about it,
since we have this open dialogue
Of course!
We have to talk about everything.
We're friends building a dream.
Brothers of destiny,
not showbiz bureaucrats!
Well, I wanted to talk
about the movie, obviously.
But yesterday,
they did a whole segment
on Dicksville that was really brutal.
They were calling for my friends
to go to jail.
I want to defend
No need to add anything.
I get you, it's great.
We like you exactly
because you're like that.
Never change.
So I should make the point
No, you need to stay quiet!
But it's so great
that you're focusing
on what the right thing to do is.
As long as you don't do it.
Then what's the point?
Look, I'll tell you how it is.
Your friends are pissing everyone off.
People hate them more than
the income revenue authority.
They made this huge mess.
They threw things at each other.
We can't be associated with that.
But I don't want to get you involved.
We're producing the film
because of how you are.
You have these lofty ideals,
the T-shirt with a skull,
these rebellious things.
Yet my brother-in-law likes you.
He's the type who watches
Celebrity Big Brother
because they voted some baboon off,
and he insults them because he thinks
Big Brother is someone's brother.
But he likes what you do.
You get it, Zero?
You bring people together.
Focus on that. Unite, not divide.
So, you think
it would create problems for the movie?
No, it would kill the movie.
If you defend those people,
it's like defending
killing cats on the web.
No more cartoon. We'd do a documentary
on the crazy guy
who defended the Düsseldorf murderer.
Listen to me,
you gotta live with these injustices,
feel the fire burning inside you.
And when you're about to burst,
mind your own business.
What do you mean?
Jerk off, go to the gym.
Let off some steam.
This is the market.
They reward you
when you have something big to say,
but you don't say it. Get it?
A big thing, but not saying it.
Let's rock and roll, Zero!
Let's rock and roll!
Let's do this cartoon!
Fag.
Great decor, great Sardinian food,
great everything!
But a terrible dinner.
Maddalena kept bringing out more food,
and I felt under pressure,
like my organs were being squashed.
There's a legend that says
that in Tibet there's a monastery
where Buddhist monks are always singing.
It's not a song,
it's like a litany, like "Om."
The monks take turns
because if someone stops,
even if it's just for a second,
without that note
the world ends.
That singing keeps the whole planet alive.
I felt the same, only without
the other monks to help me.
I'd been entrusted with this task
of filling the silence
by talking non-stop.
- Like
- Nice pancake. What did you make it with?
Who cut your hair like that? Mirketto?
You know there's a toad
that changes sex so it can hump itself?
Lots of things I didn't give a shit about,
but I thought that if I kept quiet,
the Stargate of cosmic embarrassment
would have sucked us
into the sidereal void
for people who have run out
of things to say to each other.
Every now and again,
Cesare tried to ask me a question.
But every time I answered,
it felt like I was breaking his heart,
even though I didn't want to.
You think Sergione will take me on
setting up stages again?
No, he's in Cuba.
He fled after getting into Bitcoin debt.
He sold the Saint John Paul II statue
in Termini station to a group of Russians.
Now he's a shareholder
in a Caucasian narco-state.
Do you still go to the arcade?
It closed down. It's an antiques shop now.
I know, an arcade
turning into an antiques shop
is like gentrification backwards.
An infestation of old people
taking up the places
where we'd go to have fun.
That's how it went.
Didn't you tell Sarah to come?
I'd rather see her than you. No offense.
No, she was super busy with work.
But she's with a girl now.
She must finish at some point.
I've been waiting 20 years
to score with that one.
I don't think you can. She's with a girl.
Fine, she's with a girl today,
but not every day.
She's a lesbian! She likes pussy!
How else can I put it?
What do you mean?
We have unfinished business.
Twenty years have passed.
She changed her mind.
The toad changes sex 40 times in 20 years.
She decided she doesn't like cock.
Fine, tell me about you.
Mom said you made it big with comics.
I don't know shit. I haven't read them.
Are they about your life?
What the fuck do they care?
You're not Spider-Man!
This is a country in disarray.
I'm a symptom, not a cause, I swear.
The decline had begun when I arrived.
Where I was, no one knew you.
If you want to escape,
you can always go to rehab.
He said the word, not me.
I didn't want to say it.
Perhaps because that way
we could keep pretending
that for the past 20 years,
he'd been somewhere exotic, mysterious.
It's like Schrödinger's cat.
Until you open the box,
it could be anything.
Hey, man! I was in Tibet for 12 years
studying a type of fox
that farts with its armpits
to court females.
Anyway, everything good here?
When you say that word,
it's like all the other doors close.
And only one remains open.
Rehab.
Period.
I don't want to make it uncomfortable,
so I try basic questions
that don't require details.
Are you out for good?
Do you have to go back? Or is it over?
You think I was there for 20 years
tied to the bed
and foaming at the mouth?
I haven't touched that stuff for 15 years.
I stayed there to help the others.
You make a fool of yourself
because you don't know shit.
Better to stay quiet, no?
You're like King Charles,
who pretends to know what goes on
in the Welsh mines to look cool.
Did you know
that King Charles doesn't eat lunch?
Tight-ass.
No, well, of course, but
that's what I meant.
I told everyone I stayed
because, in the end,
only people who have gone through it
can understand how to deal with an addict.
But honestly, I needed
some structure in my life.
Timetables, rules,
things to do, everything.
I need discipline, bro,
or I'd mess everything up.
That makes sense.
I left in October
because I was sick of it.
I tried to join the Army,
but they didn't want me.
I tried everything not to come back here.
Because this place
scared the shit out of me.
I don't ask about your time there.
I'm not sure you want to talk about it.
The other day,
I had this thought of Orpheus
asking Eurydice loads of questions
about her experience.
I thought that maybe
it was inappropriate to ask.
I thought he just wanted to bang her.
Do you have something to tell me?
Cesare, please!
No, it's okay. I messed up.
"Code of Male Prohibitions.
Article 12, literary metaphors."
"Article 21,
display of tact and fragility."
Unacceptable for a male
from the suburbs. Unacceptable!
- I know. My mistake.
- You're worrying me, let me tell you.
You're like that chatty
bookworm with the red hair.
Amber, Anna What the fuck is her name?
It came out wrong, what can I say?
Fine. What are you doing these days?
Where are you taking me?
Where am I taking you?
I need to deliver 21 pages by Sunday.
Then I have to start writing a cartoon
that's a big pain in the ass.
Yeah, I get that.
But other than work, what do you do?
I have to go talk with the Kurds
for a book that'll come out in April
Okay, but when you're not working?
Who do you go out with? What do you do?
What do you do with your life
other than work?
On the outside, I look unperturbed.
It's a normal question.
"What do you like doing?" It's legit.
Inside, however, I feel like the monkey
in 2001: A Space Odyssey
is hitting me in the face
with a mammoth's femur.
What the fuck do I do in life?
Why force me to think about it?
The truth is
that I'm like a beached whale.
I was born that way.
Only as a kid,
I had people around me
prodding me, saying,
"Come on, let's go see that show!
Let's go to the seaside!"
As if they were giving me
a shock to move me.
But then people get older.
Some have kids, some have work,
some move to the outskirts as it's cheaper
and it's easy to get into town.
It's normal. The world
doesn't stay the same forever.
So, in the end,
I'm still that beached whale.
But with no one to prod me,
all I can do is work.
And when you don't work,
you slowly decompose on the beach
which isn't even a beach anymore,
but a desert
with nothing there,
not even reassuring brutalist buildings
from the '80s.
On this optimistic note, let me ask you,
am I the right person
to take you to live la vida loca?
Come on! At most, I can spit out
a bit of half-chewed plankton for a snack.
He didn't say anything.
I don't know if he pitied me,
or if he thought that I was bullshitting
because I didn't want
to take him anywhere.
Overall, the evening didn't go that well.
I left his house feeling down
and with a series of promises like
"Let's meet up next week.
We'll have dinner with the others."
Those empty promises
that you make to imply a near future
because if you think
that there might not be a future,
you get anxious.
And then, I know I'm obsessed,
but on my way home,
I thought how much
those posters were pissing me off.
Let's see who gives up first, me ripping
them down, or them putting them back up.
I was ripping them down
with such eagerness
that I hadn't noticed the glue was fresh
and there was a car parked behind me.
What the fuck are you doing,
you piece of shit?
Honestly, let me tell you,
I was quite scared.
My brain quickly analyzed all the options
and then printed a report
with the various scenarios.
So, I'll read.
"Option A. Run. Get out of there."
But at least one of them
runs faster than you.
Plus, it's truly an undignified show.
You're a clumsy runner, like Pingu.
Even in tragedy,
you should have some composure.
"Option B. Scream. Ask for help."
And lose all dignity.
I'm telling you, if you start screaming,
I'm resigning as your conscience.
I've seen you cry at Grey's Anatomy.
I'm not going through
that pain again, please.
"Option C. Get beaten up."
Since in options A and B
you also get beaten up,
option C is different only in that
you don't do anything
to embarrass yourself.
Basically, you take it
and stay quiet. Okay?
Sober, clean, no frills.
I vote for option C.
See you when you wake up in the hospital
and tell me which one you chose.
See you.
I don't know how much time passed,
but not much,
as I still hadn't decided
and they still hadn't finished
crossing the street when I heard
Oh! I know him! He's my friend!
Oh my God! My savior! Cesare!
Guardian angel and avenger in a tracksuit,
saving me in my moment of need!
That piece of shit
is ripping down the posters!
Whatever. I was with my big friend.
I felt confident.
Even as a kid,
Cesare was a threshing machine.
You asshole, you've been putting up
posters in our neighborhood!
Who the fuck do you think you are?
Hey, keep quiet.
I was puzzled for a second.
"Is Cesare scared?"
I thought. "He'd have
annihilated them 15 years ago."
But it was them who
Zero, I don't know if you've been
tearing our posters down,
but I can only save you once.
You'd better get the fuck out of here.
Wait, I don't understand
He's an asshole, guys.
He's not worth it.
Let's get the fuck out of here.
- I'll talk to him.
- Who do you hang out with?
A friend of yours?
- Say thank you!
- Let's go!
There's no Orpheus in this story.
There's just Eurydice going into hell
with no one to find her.
After 20 years, she manages to get home.
No one remembers her anymore.
And you're surprised
she's not the same person.
OOPSIES
Subtitle translation by: Luisa Zamboni