Caught by a WaveMovies like Caught by a Wave
- Key Features:
- Teen romance, Summer romance, Coming-of-age, First love, Tragedy, Terminal illness, Loss, Grief, Family drama, Italian setting
- Tone:
- serious, dramatic, earnest
- Target Audience:
- Teen drama viewers, Romance enthusiasts, Coming-of-age stories, International film fans
- Emotional Arc:
- Joy → Love → Grief
Caught by a Wave

A summer fling born under the Sicilian sun quickly develops into a heartbreaking love story that forces a boy and girl to grow up too quickly.
Caught by a Wave
Each year Lucia volunteers at a Summer Camp in Sicily. This summer however, will be the hottest on record, not just because of the crazy weather, but also because of Nicola, the new soon-to-be-priest deacon who, besides being extremely handsome, hides a tormented and idealistic soul. His arrival sows panic in this seaside community, upsetting Lucia's plans forever.

While vacationing on the crowded beaches of Riccione, a group of teenagers becomes fast friends as they grapple with relationship issues and romance.

A year after their romance began in Riccione, Vincenzo and Camilla reunite for a vacation on the picturesque Amalfi Coast and put their love to the test.

Set against the sun-soaked shores of Italy in the summertime, seven different tales unfold about life, love, loss, family, and friendship.

Laura and Fabrizio have been meeting every summer in the forest by her parent's summer home. Fabrizio is a solitary boy with only his dog for company; Laura a sweet but unconfident child. This summer new aspects enter into their story as both are growing up. Laura is falling in love with Fabrizio, while he displays a new sexual awareness of her masked by his malice. Things develop further when they meet Sylvia who, unlike the innocent Laura, is confident and assertive. Fabrizio develops a fascination with her, eventually bribing Laura to fetch her to the forest to join them in play.

When Debora's ex-husband, a popular neomelodic singer, loses his life in a stage dive, she worries that her 11-year-old son Ciro may be showing symptoms of depression. Taken to a child psychologist, shy Tommaso, Ciro eventually confesses to him that it's not his father's death that has got him down, it's love for his classmate, the cute Ludovica. The two make a deal: Tommaso will help Ciro to win the affections of Ludovica, while Ciro will give Tommaso a hand at having a chance with his mother.

The troubled relationship between Gianni and Nino, set in the narrow-minded and prejudicial Sicily of 1982.

Local boy Ryan Dunne, now a pitcher for Boston College, meets Tenley Parrish, the daughter of a wealthy couple who summer on the Cape. Ryan and Tenley fall in love, much to the chagrin of their families, while Ryan clings to one last hope of being discovered and signed to a pro baseball contract.

During summer vacation in a beachside town, 16-year-old Deniz seeks the affection of his childhood crush and navigates a love triangle.

Summer Sunday at a small beach house at the coast of Rome. Many people and stories: women's basketball team, two sports-obsessed soldiers, two men with their girlfriends and the priest with a big secret, an elderly couple with their pregnant granddaughter, and engagemented couple wanting to have sex for the first time.

Eighteen-year-old Penny Cooper spent years pining for heartthrob surfer Johnny Sanders Jr. before his father’s tragic death brought them closer together. But now high school is over, and when mysterious country musician Ash Baker shows up on the beach, Penny is torn.

A gay couple living in San Francisco takes in two strangers traveling from Italy to start a new life in America, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.

School's out and 13-year-old Walter has lost his father. In his seemingly aimless wanderings around the Roman coast, a fascinating and mysterious place catches his eye: an abandoned villa with a huge, murky swimming pool. But the villa is not unguarded...

Seventeen-year-old Ginia leaves the countryside in search of a new life in Turin. Restless and seeking adventure, Ginia soon finds it in the beautiful, enigmatic Amelia, whose sensuality and confidence embolden her to begin modeling for the bohemian artists in their circle. A whirlwind affair ensues, and the young seamstress finds herself swept up in an unfamiliar and exciting world of discovery.

Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in love.

Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteorological.

Come ogni 14enne Carolina, detta Caro,è impegnata a districarsi tra la scuola, gli amici e il rapporto spesso conflittuale con i genitori, si trova improvvisamente alle prese con i turbamenti legati al primo amore che ha il nome e il volto di Massimiliano. Ad aiutarla nel suo cammino verso la scoperta delle gioie e dei dolori sentimentali ci saranno le sue amiche del cuore e la sua famiglia

Two couples are enjoying their summer at the beach, but when the grown son of one couple arrives, it surprisingly stirs something in the husband of the other couple, will the forbidden feelings end badly?

A 22 year-old Bangladeshi-Italian Muslim boy meets a beautiful, exciting Italian girl who makes him re-analyze his beliefs and culture.

Eugenio offers his childhood friend Martin work for the summer. With a game of power and desire a relationship starts to grow that goes beyond their friendship.

Lucia is a young and talented advertiser but is out of luck when it comes to love. Madly in love with her best friend's boyfriend, she struggles with her feelings when they are set to get married.

One summer day, two teens begin a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.

Waverly thought she had her future figured out: she’d start her medical residency in Toronto after a summer visit to her parents in Taipei. When her plans suddenly change, she makes an impulsive detour to a small Canadian town where she meets local lifeguard Blake. After he saves her from nearly drowning at a beach party, Blake offers to teach Waverly to swim, and as the lessons continue, the two unexpectedly find themselves falling in love.

Luca and his best friend Alberto experience an unforgettable summer on the Italian Riviera. But all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

During a sunny Sicilian summer Tanino has a sweet and tender story with Sally, a young American tourist. But when summer is over, Sally flies back to the States forgetting Tanino and her camera. He instead cannot forget the girl and he decides to go to the States with the excuse of bringing back her the camera and to see the dreamland of any Sicilian. Tanino will discover that dreams don't always match with reality...

Three girls leave behind their camping friends and head to Porto Cervo - a luxury seaside resort in northern Sardinia - looking for adventure.

Samuele is 16 and has a passion for skateboarding. He has big dreams: going to university, move to California, and travel, but things change when he meets Alice, who could be the girl of his life.

Francesco and Claudia are best friends. They're inseparable and tell each other everything, until another man enters the picture stealing Claudia's heart. Francesco then realizes that friendship between man and woman is a complicated thing.

While his parents are away for the summer, 16-year-old Dani invites his best friend, the irrepressible Nico, to stay for the holidays. Jealously rears its head when Nico appears more interested in the local girls than in Dani. Hot summer nights and too many joints lead to experimentation which neither boy can talk about, a situation complicated by the appearance of the older and openly gay Julián, a published writer and old friend of Dani’s father.

A coming-of-age tale about three 18-year-olds just out of high school who go to a Greek island following one of the boys' older girlfriend.

After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.

Margherita is a 14 year old living in Milano, who shares everything with her friends. They discuss clothes, music, school and that first kiss. A delightful coming-of-age film in which the here and now is all that really matters. Where every little thing is so very important and where feelings sometimes bubble over. In your teens, there’s no room for anything but friendship and love.

Miami is one of the most sought by young Italians. It is there, in fact, is going to study at university Luca, a Roman, the son of John and Valentina, Milan, daughter Olivia. During the plane trip from Rome to Miami, Olivia and John argue furiously.

Katie, a 17-year-old, has been sheltered since childhood and confined to her house during the day by a rare disease that makes even the smallest amount of sunlight deadly. Fate intervenes when she meets Charlie and they embark on a summer romance.

Two young New Yorkers begin to fall in love over the course of a single day, as a series of potentially life-altering meetings loom over their heads - hers concerning her family’s deportation to Jamaica, and his concerning an education at Dartmouth.

Alex, a high-school boy fond of rock and punk music, falls in love with Adelaide, who shares his feelings but doesn't want to get too involved because she will soon leave for studying in America. Alex gets relief in music and his friend Martino who leads what looks to him as a more complete life.

Claudia and Flavio were once passionately in love, but all of that is over. Now, in their fifties, they must venture anew into the world of love and dating once more but for Claudia confronting the end and accepting a new beginning isn’t so easy. Claudia is unwilling to let go and forget the life she’s built with Flavio, while Flavio, eager to move on, soon finds himself in a relationship with a much younger woman. Claudia soon reconnects with Nina, a student from her days as a professor.

Isolated on a remote property, 16-year-old Claudia finds her world transformed when a spirited girl named Grace wanders into her garden.

Young and in prison for theft, Daphne falls in love with Josh, another inmate. Their love story exists through secret letters and fleeting conversations.

It depicts the lives of several groups of characters interacting at the beach of Forte dei Marmi during the mid-1980s.

While Arturo tries to gain the love of Flora, he witnesses the history of Sicily from 1969 to 1992, miraculously dodging the crimes of the Mafia and supporting as a journalist the heroic struggle of the judges and policemen who fought this infamous organization.

From childhood to fatherhood, Piero learns things the hard way while growing up in a working-class neighborhood of Livorno.

At the end of the 1960s, when the air is filled with rock-and-roll and student rebellions are changing the world, the older of two brothers joins a prestigious newsroom of the public radio broadcaster. Not long after, he finds himself in the middle of a dangerous conflict between journalists and the secret service.

On an unusual day, a series of coincidences lead Eduardo to meet Monica at a party. A curiosity is aroused between the two and, despite not being alike, they fall madly in love. In 1980s Brasília, their love needs to mature and learn to overcome differences.

Three high school students experience the perks and pitfalls of love in director Leste Chen’s sensitive tale of friendship and yearning.

Two lovers are stuck in stale relationships due to lean finances. But when one is duped into thinking he's suddenly rich, he takes very drastic action.

At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...

What do you dream of when you're 16-years-old and in a seaside resort in Normandy in the 1980s? A best friend? A lifelong teen pact? Scooting off on adventures on a boat or a motorbike? Living life at breakneck speed? No. You dream of death. Because you can't get a bigger kick than dying. And that's why you save it till the very end. The summer holidays are just beginning, and this story recounts how Alexis grew into himself.

After the renewed flings with their former lovers prove to be disastrously unlike the romantic memories, an unfaithful couple returns to each other.

Two families meet for a marriage that neither want, and things take a turn when the respective patriarchs fall in love.

Several groups of Italians experience amusing adventures and tests of character on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Some of the characters are there simply for rest and relaxation, while others act with different motivations. Multiple plot lines unfold simultaneously as different characters' stories are presented.

Two people meet each other after missing the last train home, leading to a beautiful relationship over five years.

Adriatic sun and sand set the scene for comic misunderstandings, particularly for a writer pursuing a publisher and a man willing to box for love.

Construction worker Oreste and young fiancee Adelaide meet Nello, a cook in a pizzeria. This love triangle often goes to communist rallies, and enjoys the filthy beaches of Ostia. Will the hostile environment pave a way to jealousy?

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

Lucy Harmon, an American teenager is arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to be sculpted by a family friend who lives in a beautiful villa. Lucy visited there four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with an Italian boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted.

The puppy love of two teenagers is set against a backdrop of adults struggling with their own lives. As a couple in love, they don't care about anything but themselves and seem totally unaware about everything that surrounds them.

A young woman from the Italian countryside experiences the dark side of the business after she moves to Rome to become a star.

Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.

A spoiled rich woman and a brutish Communist deckhand become stranded alone on a desert island after venturing away from their cruise.

In Italy, the gambler and professor of poetry Daniele Dominici arrives in the seaside town of Rimini and is hired to teach for four months in the local high school replacing another teacher. His relationship with his partner Monica is in crisis and he spends most of the time with his new acquaintances and gamblers Giorgio, Marcello and Gerardo. In classroom, he meets the gorgeous nineteen years old student Vanina Abati, who is Gerardo's girlfriend.

Ava, 13, is spending the summer on the Atlantic coast when she learns that she will lose her sight sooner than expected. Her mother decides to act as if everything were normal so as to spend their best summer ever. Ava confronts the problem in her own way. She steals a big black dog that belongs to a young man on the run...

Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.

Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.

After a year of long-distance, Raquel and Ares reunite on a steamy beach trip. Faced with fresh flirtations and insecurities, will their love prevail?

A long love story, seen through the memories of one young couple. The journey through the years of two individuals, united, divided, happy, unhappy, deeply in love, or in love with others, in a single stream of emotions and shades of feeling. Over the course of the film, he learns that love can indeed last, while she learns to live with nostalgia.

Eli has four children, an unemployed husband and a job with an almost impossible commute. Vale is single and makes ends meet by working in clubs as a dancer. Tied by a profound emotional bond of true sisterhood, the two women's lives are two sides of the same coin, but their mutual solidarity isn’t always enough to lighten the load of their difficult circumstances.

The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.

During WWII, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.

At the age of 14 the world around you changes at a dizzying speed. But what if actually it's you that changing? What if these changes take you away from what up until now, has been your world? Ibrahim and Rafa are going to suffer these changes for themselves, experiencing first love in a way they never could have imagined. And having to keep it Hidden away.

Francesco, a young man who wants to be a comedian, insults his girlfriend to make his public laugh; she will break up with and so he will think of a crazy plan to win her back.

Tommaso goes incredible lengths to win back the love of his former girlfriend Cecilia, but sometimes things change in the most unexpected way.

A teen star ventures out to the Italian countryside for a summer and emerges a new artist.

Elena and Antonio seem not to be made for each other. They are too different in terms of character, life choices, worldview, and the way they relate to others. They are total opposites. However, they are overwhelmed by a mutual attraction they're trying hard to avoid; but to which they succumb to.

A 16-year-old Sicilian becomes the target of a mafia hit man after refusing to go through with her prearranged marriage.

An aimless college graduate jumping from one job interview to another — killing time in between with his wisecracking and deadbeat room-mate — falls in love with an actress.

On the Adriatic Riviera the destinies of a variety of characters cross. A piano player is the lover of a rich woman who wants him to become a killer, a call girl is looking for her true love, two workers want to marry two old billionaires.

Set in the small, mountainous village of Vermiglio during the waning days of WWII, a series of dramatic, consequential events unfold after the arrival of a taciturn Sicilian soldier, who hides out in town after deserting the army. While there, the soldier develops a romance with a provincial family’s eldest daughter.

On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.

Tommaso meets Stefania. They like each other, they fall in love, they get married. A child is also born. It all started very well, it evolved well, then discreetly, little by little until the crisis. It seemed impossible, yet the love, which seemed really solid, perhaps fell apart, even turning into hatred. Who knows if there is still time to do so. Volo, ex Jena, tries to be a real actor. An appeal test is required.

Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in southern Italian town of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

The story of a small, simple and happy family in which a boy, a manipulator, violently enters, which distorts the life of this wonderful fifteen-year-old and makes her a nightmare.

Set in the 1980s, a young Italian-American from the wrong side of the tracks falls for a Jewish girl from Long Island.

Set in Genoa, the film concerns the financial struggles and emotional strain that occur after Michele loses his job. He and his wife Elsa are forced to give up their affluent lifestyle and cope with the tensions of moving into a smaller home, finding new work, and making sacrifices.

After growing up in Switzerland, 13-year-old Marta returns to a city in southern Italy with her mother and older sister. Independent and inquisitive, she joins a catechism class at a local church. However, the games and religious pop songs she encounters there do not nearly satisfy her interest in faith. Struggling to find her place, Marta pushes the boundaries of the class, the priest, and the church.

In 1971, a young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader.

From the album of the same name by Claudio Baglioni the film tells the love story of two teenagers during the legendary seventies. A story so overwhelming as to compel the world to retreat, to step aside. Andrea and Giulia come from two different worlds, have different friends, and two different lives who call them strongly in opposite directions. Will they keep their love alive in spite of everything?

A comedy about generational conflict between two parents who do not want to grow old and a seventeen year old daughter who wants to become an adult. During a weekend with some friends in their country house in Tuscany, Marcello and Marina, relieved that the love affair of their teenage daughter Rose with another boy, Luke, is over, prepare to meet their daughter's new boyfriend. The problem is that the two adults, who still feel pretty young, do not know what to expect, and what they are about to discover will leave them speechless ...

Summer, 1943: wealthy youth in the Riccione district of Rimini play while the war gets closer. Carlo Caremoli, a young man who follows the crowd, has found ways to avoid military service. Then, on the beach, he meets Roberta, a war widow with a child. Roberta's mother warns Roberta to avoid Carlo, but to her, he seems attentive and to her daughter he is kind. Romance develops. Within a few weeks, Roberta is risking everything. Can there be a resolution between passion, on the one hand, and war, duty, and social expectation on the other?

Loredana is a schoolgirl who takes advantage of her fellow students and teachers by using her innocent schoolgirl beauty. After she loses her virginity to an older man she soon realizes there are more important things to life than teasing men.

Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.

Like all sixteen-year-olds, Leo prefers the company of friends, motorbike rides and music to school. None of the teachers seem to be able to arouse his interest until the arrival in his class of a young history and philosophy substitute who, with his modern methods, helps him see the world with different eyes. In love with Beatrice, the ethereal girl of his dreams, Leo divides the world by colours. Beatrice is the red of love but he is forced to confront his own beliefs and fears when he discovers that the girl is suffering from leukemia, a disease that he links to white, a symbol of emptiness and loss.

Two high school students form an intense connection as they navigate the challenges of discovering and expressing their truest selves.

In 2006, as World Cup fever sweeps Italy, high school senior Luca falls hard for dolphin trainer Azzurra and stumbles on a family secret -- right before his exams.

The Guerrasio family and friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family are on top form. However, everything changes the next day when the father disappears. Chiara, unconvinced by the cover story, starts to investigate. As she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.



