LIZARD BOY

Nobody must know that 10-year-old Vito is secretly living with his parents in their small apartment. Father and mother are working in 1970s Switzerland as so-called "seasonal workers" on a construction site and in a factory. Even though family reunifications for migrants are forbidden, they have secretly smuggled their son into Switzerland. The boy must spend his days in the apartment all by himself; with the strict order to remain hidden, not to make a sound and to disappear immediately if anyone enters the apartment. Vito is cut off from everything that comes with a normal childhood and adolescence: discovering the world, social contacts, formal education. While his social skills wither, he perfects the art of rendering himself invisible. When his Nonna is on her deathbed, the parents leave the boy behind in the apartment all by himself for a few days ? against his will. His imagination and his father's old comic books save Vito from loneliness and paranoia. The boy imagines himself to be a superhero: Lizard Boy. As a hero with the power to disappear immediately he dares to go out into the stairwell of the apartment building for the very first time. From there, he comes to know the colourful neighbourhood. In the apartment below he meets Emmy, who teaches him German and provides him with access to education. But danger lurks behind every corner and it's only a question of time until Vito is discovered.