''Forever Mary'' ( it, Mery per sempre), is an Italian dramatic film directed by

Marco Risi Marco Risi (born 4 June 1951) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, film producer and cinematographer. Born in Milan, he is son of director Dino Risi. After graduating from Liceo Scientifico, Risi joined the faculty of philosophy, but aband ...

and released in 1989. It stars

Michele Placido Michele Placido (; born 19 May 1946) is an Italian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He began his career on stage, and first gained mainstream attention through a series of roles in films directed by the likes of Mario Monicelli and Marco ...

Claudio Amendola Claudio Amendola (born 16 February 1963) is an Italian actor, director and television presenter. He starred in the 1993 film '' The Escort'', which was entered into the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Biography Born in Rome and the son of actors and ...

, Alessandra Di Sanzo, Francesco Benigno, Roberto Mariano, Maurizio Prollo, Filippo Genzardi, Alfredo Li Bassi, Salvatore Termini, Luigi Maria Burruano,

Gianluca Favilla Gianluca is an Italian masculine given name. Its English translation is "John Luke" and it is often a shorter form of " Giovanni Luca". * Gianluca Alfenoni (born 1996), Argentine footballer *Gianluca Arrighi (born 1972), Italian writer *Gianlu ...

Giovanni Alamia Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

and

Tony Sperandeo Tony Sperandeo (born 8 May 1953) is an Italian actor of cinema and television. Sperandeo is notable for frequently playing the roles of tough characters from his native region, Sicily. As of 2011, he was working on ''La Nuova Squadra'', a police ...

Synopsis

''Mery per sempre'' is set in ''Rosaspina'', a fictional juvenile detention centre (based on a real facility named ''Malaspina'') in Palermo,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, during the 1980s. The protagonist, ''Marco Terzi'' (Michele Placido), is a teacher who has been transferred to Palermo from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He obtains a temporary position as teacher inside the institution, waiting to start teaching in a high school, and has great difficulty in establishing a rapport with the young, hostile students; in particular, ''Natale Sperandeo'' (Francesco Benigno), the leader of the group, who is inside for murder, and ''Pietro Giancona'' (Claudio Amendola). Terzi's situation is further complicated when ''Marilyn Libassi'' (Alessandra Di Sanzo), a

trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (fil ...

prostitute, nicknamed ''Mery'', falls in love with him and when ''Claudio'' severely hits ''Carmelo'' who wanted rape her. With the passing of time, however, Terzi slowly gains the respect and admiration of his students, even from the most hardened of the young men, but he comes in contrast with the director and the warders. After the death of Pietro, killed during a robbery after a jailbreak, he decides to refuse a well paid position in the high school to stay with the boys. ''Forever Mary'' was followed in 1990 with the sequel '' Ragazzi fuori'', featuring most of the same cast and characters, with the exception of Placido and Amendola. The film ''Mery per sempre'' was the inspiration behind a song with the same name by the popular Israeli singer

Ivri Lider Ivri Lider ( he, עברי לידר) is an Israeli pop star and part of the duo TYP, also known as The Young Professionals. He served as a judge on the first season of '' The X Factor Israel''. Music career In October 2005 Lider received ...

.http://www.nrg.co.il/online/archive/ART32/401.html

References

* 1989 films Films set in Palermo Sicilian-language films Italian LGBT-related films Films directed by Marco Risi Italian drama films Films about educators 1980s Italian films {{1980s-Italy-film-stub