92' 2014, HD, col., Italy
Directed by: Michael Fornasero

Genre: Creative DOC
Languages: Eng / Eng sub. / Ger / It

Produced by: Indyca, ventura film

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in association with ma.ja.de. film productions
in co-production with RSI
with the support of MEDIA development, Piemonte Doc Film Fund
with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte and City of Turin
Screenplay: Michele Fornasero
Director of Photography: Paolo Ferrari (aic)
Camera operator: Alberto Airola
Sound recording: Gigi Miniotti
Editors: Jesper Osmund, Marco Rezoagli
Original Music: Giorgio Giampa'
Film music financing & services: Great Temptation - Vincent Favrat, Thierry Baujard, Pablo Carrera
Commissioning editor: Silvana Bezzola Rigolini (RSI, CH)
Co-producers: Elda Guidinetti, Andres Pfaeffli (ventura film, CH)
Producer: Simone Catania (Indyca, ITA)
World Sales: Deckert Distribution

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Distributed in Italy by: Indyca 
in collaboration with I Wonder Pictures
home video: CG Entertainment

 

Synopsis

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The Messina brothers are Yesmoke, a little tobacco company based in modern day Turin, Italy. Originally, Yesmoke was an online store for cigarettes selling its products all over the world. Every day millions of people would buy cheap packets of Marlboro, Camels and Lucky Strikes online. When sales reached over one hundred million, "Big Tobacco" started to fight the "Little Guys" and sued them for 550 Million dollars, obliging them to shut their website down.

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The two brothers decided to build their own cigarette manufacturing company in the outskirts of Turin, taking the fight to Philip Morris in an effort to level the playing field. Their goal is to take revenge and to attack tobacco multinationals by every means at their disposal. But today, the Italian government too and their severe regulations has changed the course of this on-going debate. So the two brothers are even more dedicated to try and fight against the system. smoKings is like a gangster movie, in that there are not good guys here, just small bad guys fighting big bad guys. Who's going to win this unfair battle?

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