| Genres: | Sci-Fi, Action, Thriller |
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The Red Fever has brought mankind to the brink of extinction and children are the only ones left. The surviving kids have split into anarchic gangs. W…
The world as we know it no longer exists. A virus has ravaged the planet, wiping out the adults. The children, who are immune until puberty, live in savage packs, fighting over the few edible scraps which the grown-ups left them. In Sicily, nature is taking back what was once hers, smothering the towns with her greenery, choking the hulks of old vehicles with ivy. There is no electricity or running water. Hidden away in a family farmhouse in the woods are the Salemi siblings. Anna is fourteen, Astor is eight. The skeleton of their mother still lies in the double bed. Each day the young girl heads out in search of food, going as far as Palermo. One day she stumbles across a gang of children smeared in blue paint in a ruined building. They are the followers of the evil Angelica. Legend has it she keeps an adult whose kiss can save you from the virus locked up somewhere. Anna runs away with Pietro, a boy she instinctively trusts. He takes her for her first ride on a moped. When she gets home, Astor is there waiting for her. The boy is convinced there are giant birds that poison the air outside the forest, and that only her sister knows how to take them on. It’s what Anna has told him, to protect him from the dangers out there.
After taking care of little Astor, Anna sets off in search of provisions, just like she does every day. But then she decides to go and look for Pietro, who lives like a hermit on the shores of a lake, where he cultivates tomatoes. They go for a swim together, and afterwards they stretch out on the sand, swapping memories about the before time, before the virus. But time is blurring their memories. A gang of blues, drawn by a fire Astor lit next to the house, turns up at the farm. The boy thinks they are ghosts, and they brutally force him to follow them to Angelica’s villa. When Anna gets home and finds her little brother gone, she is plunged into the depths of despair. At dawn, more determined than ever, she sets off to search for Astor. She asks Pietro for help, but he wants nothing to do with the blues. Along the way, Anna stops off at the only remaining supermarket to look for a map of Sicily. There she finds a sadistic kid called Mario, and he lures her into a trap …
Astor is dipped in a well full of blue paint, making him one of the evil Angelica’s followers. Meanwhile, Anna has been imprisoned in the supermarket basement. Mario has fun torturing her and treats her like a dog. Pietro comes looking for her; when she hears his voice in the distance. she manages to attract his attention and to get herself free. Anna wants to continue her journey in search of her brother, but Pietro disagrees, and the two of them argue again. Anna reaches the gates of Angelica’s villa. Dozens of children throng around the residence, bearing gifts in the hope of being allowed in, and of being saved from the Red Fever. Anna manages to find her way in. But she is caught off guard, and suddenly finds herself playing a starring role in Angelica’s freak show … A terrified Anna sings Big in Japan, but Angelica is enraptured. She announces she wants Anna by her side in the show she is staging to unveil the Big Little Lady to her bedraggled subjects. The last adult left in the world, and the only one that can save someone from the Red Fever with a kiss.
After the night’s revelry, Anna wakes up in the queen’s bedroom. Whilst everyone else is asleep, she goes off in search of her brother. But Astor wants to stay with the blues; now he’s found out there are other kids in the world, he doesn’t want to stay locked up at home anymore. When Angelica finds out Anna is trying to escape, she has her captured and forces her to play chase. But this is chase with a difference; if you get caught, you die. In attempting to escape, Anna is bitten by a viper and passes out. When she wakes up, she finds herself face to face with the Big Little Lady. But just who is the world’s only living adult? Her name is Katia. She used to be a village seamstress, and before the Red Fever she kept herself very much to herself. In the before world, Katia met Angelica’s sister Ginevra, and fell head over heels in love with her. Anna is being kept prisoner in one of the villa’s wings by three little menaces: Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White. In the long days of her convalescence, she manages to establish contact with Katia. But Angelica has decided she wants to marry Anna. Astor manages to get in touch with his sister, who sends him to Pietro for help.
Anna and Katia are preparing for the wedding ceremony. When Angelica comes in to make sure everything is ready, she falls into their deadly ambush. Once released, Katia decides to stay on at the villa to look after the blues whilst Anna once again sets off alone. When she reaches Pietro, she learns that Astor never actually arrived. But worst of all, she sees that Pietro is covered with blotches. He’s fallen ill. The two of them set off together to look for Astor, crossing fields and deserted roads, but there is no trace of him. Anna is in despair, but she decides to accompany Pietro, who wants to see Mount Etna before he dies. When they get there, Anna and Pietro have to tackle the resistance put up by a gang of menacing young thugs, who declare themselves the owners of the volcano.
Astor is still with Ndraveche and his puppet theatre. He sleeps, and in his dreams he sees his mother. She tells him to go back to his sister; she is the only person who will always be able to protect him. In the meantime, Anna is returning home. She is shattered, physically but above all mentally, after losing Pietro. But when she gets home, she finds her brother, and the family is reunited once again. The siblings decide to set off for Italy. Perhaps somebody there has managed to find an antidote for the Red Fever. After a long trek on foot, the two find a pedalo. They struggle to get it into the water, and then they set sail. The crossing is not easy, and the current drives them out onto the high seas, where they lose their last memento of their mother, the Book of Important Things. But they have learned how to get by alone; they can always write a new one. If, that is, they manage to find somewhere to make landfall.
