Naja (1998)
Directed by Angelo Longoni
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Synopsis by Bhob Stewart
For this Italian drama recalling Robert Altman's Streamers (1983), writer-director Angela Longoni and co-scripter Massimo Sgorbani adapted their own play, with the cast of stage production repeating their roles. Five young soldiers, doing compulsory one-year service, find themselves spending Sunday in the barracks because the bathroom was destroyed by vandals while they were on duty. Among the five is a sadistic bully who outranks the others -- an upstanding Sicilian, a sensitive gay, a guy with plans for a marriage and children, and a paranoid who pops pills during an identity crisis. As the day wears on, tensions develop within the group. Paolo Vivaldi provides the background guitar music.