SYNOPSIS: BOAR STEW
Enzo Abadi-Uccelloni, a Syrian, immigrant and former olive worker turned real estate developer, is found shot dead on the stretch of land he was going to develop within the Nature Preserve of a village in Southern Tuscany. Danilo Scotti, a local cop and single dad happily, hands the case over to the Carabinieri who believe Enzo’s death is linked his involvement in organized crime.
Alex di Carlo a retired, lesbian Italian-American NYPD detective is in the village that day to meet Danilo, a distant relative of her deceased wife. When she learns of the case she pushes Danilo into investigating the murder with her. They interview people who knew Enzo but can’t find any evidence linking him to organized crime. However while investigating new information comes to light.
Everyone knew Enzo was married to Carlotta Uccelloni. Her family is so important in the region that Enzo even took their name. However, the two of them were secretly in a threesome, raising a child with their lover, Michele Brigandi. Carlotta’s brother, Luchino, the powerful paterfamiglia and investor in Enzo’s real estate project, demanded they keep their polyamorous relationship secret so as to not to bring controversy and shame to the Uccelloni family and and brand. Therefore, in public Michele was required to pose as the nanny to his biological child. Luchino detests Michele, who is more interested in poetry than business, and is furious that he is the one who produced the only heir to the Uccelloni empire. He plots to get Michele arrested by blackmailing him into trapping protected songbirds for underground songbird supper clubs served at the Uccelloni Agriturismo.
Meanwhile suspicions also gather around Roberto Conti, a radical environmentalist who vehemently opposes to any development and believes in letting nature “re-wild”. Unfortunately, Danilo and Alex’s investigation comes to a halt when Danilo’s kid gets sick. Alex realizes the only way to continue the investigation is if she babysits while Danilo interviews Conti on his own.
Danilo comes away believing Conti is involved in Enzo death and tips off the Carabinieri. But the Carabinieri don’t want Danilo anywhere near the case because it turns out they are are the ones involved in organized crime, illegally trafficking in drugs and protected songbird trafficking. To get rid of Danilo, they ask him set up surveillance in the forest and then send an assassin to kill him. At the same time Conti happens to be in the forest looking for the poachers. Mistaking the assassin for a poacher, Conti kills him. Danilo’s radio call for help to the Carabinieri is picked by the elite Forestry Police who had been surveilling the corrupt Carabinieri for suspected crimes of wildlife trafficking.
The elite Forestry Police, Danilo and Alex (as translator) bust up an underground songbird dinner at the agriturismo where the Carabinieri are arrested and Luchino flees. Michel, putting the pieces together, believes Luchino killed Enzo in a paranoid rage, suspecting Enzo was a blood relative of a rival family of the Uccelloni from the 16th century. Though it seems preposterous, Danilo and Alex trace the murder weapon back to Luchino and he’s arrested. Instead of returning to New York, Alex remains in the village where she has found love with another expat and Danilo is promoted to the Forestry Squad.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Alex DiCarlo: Retired NYPD, Italian-American Lesbian in her mid-sixties. Recently widowed. She’s on holiday in Tuscany, in the village for the first time, to meet Danilo, a distant relative of her late wife.
Danilo Scotti: 29, Municipal police officer in the village. Single father of a six year old son, Gianni. Wife left him 3 years ago. He’s the third cousin once removed of Alex’s wife.
Vicenzo: 30s, Police secretary and aspiring conceptual artist.
Paola Scotti: 45, Danilo’s mom. Divorced from Danilo’s father. Lives in a different town with her boyfriend. Reluctant grandmother.
Roberto Conti: Head of the local Land Trust. Oversees the Nature Preserve. In his early 60s. He’s a member and loose leader of Resiste, an environmental action group. He’s an advocate of re-wildling.
Cecilia Brandt: American artist living outside the village in a stone farmhouse she restored herself. She was a teacher and environmentalist in NYC. She is a hunter an expert in traditional Italian cooking. She’s Alex’s age. She helps out babysitting Danilo’s son Gianni. Member of Resiste.
Luchino Uccelloni: In his 40s. Businessman. Runs a successful agritourism and a horse and cattle farm which he inherited at 25 when his entire family, except for his sister Carlotta, was killed in a boating accident. He disapproves of his sister’s threesome and insists they live a “normal” family for the sake of the “Uccelloni brand”. He’s obsessed with his family history and genealogy.
Carlotta Uccelloni: Luchino’s sister. 10 years younger than Luchino. Former heroin addict. She doesn’t work and is financially dependent on Uccelloni money. Mother of a newborn whose father is Michele (her boyfriend). She is married to Enzo Abadi-Uccelloni
Enzo Abadi-Uccelloni: 30. Came to Italy in his late teens as a Syrian immigrant. Learned Italian picking olives in Puglia. Made his way to the Tuscan village where he was hired by Luchino and swiftly became essential to the business. Married to Carlotta, they became involved with a man named Michele and the three lived together. Luchino gave him money to build eco-cottages on a tract of beach in Nature Preserve on the condition that they live in public like a straight family.
Michele: Studying for a doctorate in 19th century Italian poetry. Had a job in the kitchen at the Uccelloni agriturismo. That’s where he met Enzo and Carlotta. He is sexually involved with both of them. The baby is his and Carlotta’s but he has to pretend to be the nanny. Member of Resiste.
Salvatore Pantaloni: 40s, former business partner of Enzo. He was working with Malfi Designs to build a hotel on the beach in the Nature Preserve before Enzo outbid them with his project. Shady, opportunistic businessman with expensive tastes. Helps out the Carabinieri by letting them use his field office to store drugs and money.
Marsha Bland: American tourist, birdwatcher in her 50s. Practicing attorney in NYC. White liberal from Park Slope.
Frank: American tourist, birdwatcher in his late 20s. Black.
Claire: Marsha’s Park Slope friend who one day up and left her family for an Italian named Marco. She is now living in Rome.
Marco: Claire’s boyfriend. He’s part of the Elite Forestry Police.
Rossi and Russo: Local, corrupt Carabinieri. Originally from the North of Italy. They are trafficking drugs and protected songbirds.
Rose Baker: Alex’s late wife. She was a New Yorker, a retired school teacher. A bon vivant. Loved NYC and had lots of interests, fishing, gardening, history… and had a cottage in Cherry Grove. Died suddenly of a heart attack