Casatiello

A parody of Romeo and Juliet.

Set in the world of mega-churches in which a former Deadhead-turned-born again-Christian finds himself on the run from fundamentalist members of his mega-church who will do anything to protect their larger-than-life pastor.

Two pairs of Mormon missionaries from America live in a beaten-up apartment in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Their personalities are distinctly different. Appropriately, the most responsible one, Elder Johnson, is the District Leader and oversees their efforts. His companion, the vain Elder Van Pelt, seeks to become the assistant to the mission president (the top post available) as soon as possible, and he receives letters from three girlfriends he left behind. The capable Elder Rogers has become disillusioned and inattentive to his duties ever since a previous missionary companion returned to America, looked up and married Elder Rogers' girlfriend. As a result he is simply marking time until he returns home in a few weeks time. The three meet Elder Rogers' new companion, Elder Calhoun, in the train station. This new elder is a nerdy but enthusiastic "greenie" that has just arrived from the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Utah. Unfortunately his training did not give him much fluency in the Dutch language, but as luck would have it, the first person he approaches to proselytize is a fellow American named Kyle. In the weeks that come, Elder Johnson and Van Pelt increasingly irritate each other while in contrast Elder Rogers and Calhoun begin to relate in a positive fashion as they teach Kyle about the Mormon faith.

Malti Shankar lives in a fairly large house in a small town in India with her mom and dad, while her paternal uncle, Gauri Shankar, who has literally brought Malti up, lives in the house next door. Malti's marriage is being arranged with a young man named Ram G. Sharma, who lives in Bombay with his dad, Girdharilal; mom; elder brother, Shiri and his wife, Shobha; and a cricket-crazy school-going brother, Hari. The Pandit, arranging the marriage, describes the Sharma family, who originate from the nearby Bayana town, as a good family, living near the seashore, in a big building called "Bharat Mahal". The wedding party arrives, the bride and groom approve of each other, get married, and Malti re-locates to Ram's house. She is shocked and surprised to find that it is nowhere near the seashore, is a shanty room, divided two ways, and a kitchen - that is now her bedroom. Malti always had lots of space to live and grow up in, will this obscure, noisy, overcrowded, with virtually no privacy for herself and Ram - be her fate for this lifetime? What will Gauri Shankar's reaction be when he finds out the reality of the Sharma family?

Dad loses his job and now the family is in the need for money. Mie and Ole is working on a talent Show at their school and Little Per tries to help the family...

Jeanne is headed to Lisbon with plans to clear her debt by putting her mother's apartment for sale. At the airport she bumps into Jean, a whimsical and somewhat intrusive former high school friend.