Adventures Italian Style Reloaded(Tornando a Est)
A film byAntonio Pisu
Three friends. Another unexpected adventure.
From three familiar friends to unfamiliar streets and chance encounters, the film moves between friendship, road-movie humour and the intrigue of early-1990s Eastern Europe. These five images include a behind-the-scenes production photograph.
Film and production images from Adventures Italian Style Reloaded (Tornando a Est).
They went looking for adventure. Trouble found them first.
In 1991, three Italian friends find their trip to Bulgaria turning into a comedy of mistaken identities, criminal intrigue and international espionage.
It is 1991, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Back in Cesena, Pago, Rice and Bibi have settled into familiar routines following their earlier adventure in Romania. But Bibi's relationship with Yuliya, a Bulgarian woman, draws the three friends toward another journey east.
What begins with personal hopes and the excitement of travel quickly becomes far more complicated. Unaware of the dangers surrounding Yuliya, the friends stumble into a web of criminal interests and an intelligence operation being watched by the Italian secret service.
Through coincidences and increasingly spectacular misunderstandings, they are mistaken for international spies. As Europe adjusts to a changing political landscape, the trio must find their way through a world they barely understand.
A follow-up to Adventures Italian Style (Est – Dittatura Last Minute), with a new adventure set in Bulgaria in 1991. Released in Bulgaria as Bulgaria Amore Mio.
Some friendships are made for adventure.
Pago, Rice and Bibi have already experienced more than they expected from their first journey through Eastern Europe. Back home in Cesena, everyday life has resumed, but their shared curiosity remains difficult to resist.
Bibi's connection with Yuliya gives them a reason to head east once again. Their different personalities, established friendship and extraordinary talent for finding trouble turn an ordinary trip into a wildly unpredictable adventure.
The borders are opening. The world is still complicated.
The Berlin Wall has fallen, and Europe appears to be entering a new era. To young Italians eager to explore, the changes promise greater freedom, unfamiliar places and the possibility of new encounters.
Yet the world they discover in Bulgaria remains far more complex than they expect. Old political structures are disappearing, but uncertainty, criminal networks and intelligence operations still shape events in the shadows.
Against this transitional backdrop, the film contrasts youthful optimism with the realities of a continent redefining itself.
Wrong place. Wrong time. Wrong identities.
Pago, Rice and Bibi are not secret agents. That does not stop the world around them from believing otherwise.
With no training, no mission and little understanding of the forces gathering around them, the three friends stumble into an international intelligence operation.
A chain of coincidences makes their ordinary actions appear suspicious, leading to mistaken identities, complications and escalating comedy. Behind these misunderstandings lies a dangerous world of hidden motives and conflicting interests.
The film balances suspense with the warmth of a friendship that survives even the most improbable adventures.
Antonio Pisu
A filmmaker bringing friendship, humour and European history together through character-driven cinema.
Antonio Pisu is an Italian director, screenwriter and actor whose filmmaking brings together accessible comedy and an interest in the historical circumstances shaping individual lives.
He directed Est – Dittatura Last Minute (2020), internationally known as Adventures Italian Style, following three Italian friends through Eastern Europe shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
With Adventures Italian Style Reloaded, Pisu continues their story in 1991, shifting the setting to Bulgaria and combining friendship, a road-movie sensibility, espionage and historical reflection.
A Bulgarian community screening on the big screen in Calgary.
Join us at the Calgary European Film Festival for Adventures Italian Style Reloaded (Tornando a Est), an Italy–Bulgaria–Romania co-production in which three friends journey to Bulgaria and become entangled in an unexpected world of mistaken identities and international intrigue.
Friday, November 6, 2026.
An adventure comedy.
Presented in Italian with English subtitles.
Festival communityBulgarian
Meet the people behind the adventure.
Meet the friends whose adventures lead from Italy to Bulgaria, and discover the filmmakers behind Antonio Pisu's road-movie sequel.
The world has changed. Their adventures are just beginning.
In a Europe opening to new possibilities, three friends discover that the most unforgettable journeys rarely unfold according to plan.