The Last Prosecco

This elegant, beautifully photographed murder mystery incorporates a strong environmental message and an inside story of the competitive Prosecco business in the Veneto region. The dashing, opinionated Count Ancillotto (Rade Serbedzija), as unstinting in his criticism of a nearby pollution-producing factory as he is proud of his family's heritage of making the finest Prosecco, kills himself with the flair and style that have marked his life. The motives for the suicide are mysterious, and the mystery deepens when a couple of the Count's best-known enemies are gunned down. Portly police inspector Stucky (Giuseppe Battiston), a socially awkward outsider of half-Persian descent, is assigned to this baffling case in which the main suspect is a dead man. The trail leads Stucky to a sharpshooting Venetian prostitute, a crazed gravedigger, and an exclusive Prosecco brotherhood, but the real revelation for the policeman is the late Count's credo of savoring the finer things in life and fighting to preserve them. (Santa Barbara International Film Festival)