CARACAS

“Caracas is a product of his time, lost and alone, seeking out truths about his existence that he cannot find. Caracas is the Christ of the meek, the humblest of men. He hates the sea and curses Naples through clenched teeth. By his side, a sort of elder statesman he has found, a novelist who roams the underside of a city that no longer exists, which he no longer recognizes, but was once his. Giordano wants to stop writing, since he knows that coming back was a mistake. The Naples that Caracas knows is a time-worn, jilted beauty: bruised and bold and damned. It isn’t Naples; it’s a South American barrio, a Brazilian favela, an Indian slum. Still, on the damp streets and alleys of this Babel, everyone there thinks they can have their dream, slow dancing in passionate embraces. They all hope they won’t be damned but saved. All of them, even Caracas and Giordano, dream of opening their eyes after a nightmare and seeing the bright light of day after a long dark night.” (Marco D’Amore)

Marco D’Amore graduated from the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Arts in Milan in 2004. He became a stage actor with troupes such as that headed by Elena Bucci and Marco Sgrosso, one play being 2007 La trilogia della villeggiatura, with Toni Servillo. In 2005, D’Amore co-founded the stage and film production company La Piccola Società with Francesco Ghiaccio, and would make four stage productions over the next few years, which he directed and acted in (Solita Formula, Il figlio di Amleto, L’albero, and L’acquario), as well as two short films which he acted in and co-wrote and co-directed with Francesco Ghiaccio. In 2010, he co-starred alongside Toni Servillo in Claudio Cupellini’s film A Quiet Life, but it was in 2014 that he shot to fame as Ciro di Marzio in the TV series Gomorrah. The same year, he produced Ghiaccio’s film Un posto sicuro and appeared in Perez and Alaska. In 2016, he directed and starred in the play American Buffalo by David Mamet. In 2017, he starred in the films Brutti e Cattivi by Cosimo Gomez and in Drive Me Home by Simone Catania. In 2018, he co-wrote, together with Francesco Ghiaccio, the latter’s second film, the comedy Dolcissime. D’Amore made his own directing debut in 2019, helming the fifth and sixth episode of the fourth season of Gomorrah, then on the big screen with the feature film L’immortale, in which he resumed his role as Ciro Di Marzio. Three years later, his documentary Napoli Magica premiered at the Torino Film Festival. Caracas is D’Amore’s third feature film.