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.
Dino Ossola, a small-time real estate agent who dreams of bigger things; Serena Ossola, his teenage daughter who dates a spoilt rich brat; Carla Bruneschi, an actress who has given up her career to marry a wealthy businessman; Massimiliano Giovanni Bernaschi, her husband, a powerful player; Massimiliano Bernaschi, the troubled son of the Bernaschis'; Roberta Ossola, a psychologist, Dino's second wife ; Donato Russomano, a brilliant drama teacher who is stuck on Carla; Luca Ambrosini, a teenager frowned upon by others; an anonymous cyclist - They are all shareholders of the human capital. Errr - all? Really?—Guy Bellinger
Human Capital begins at the end, as a cyclist is run off the road by a careening SUV the night before Christmas Eve. As details emerge of the events leading up to the accident, the lives of the well-to-do Bernaschi family, privileged and detached, will intertwine with the Ossolas, struggling to keep their comfortable middle-class life, in ways neither could have expected.
After working at a private school party in a small town in Italy on the Christmas Eve, the waiter Fabrizio is riding his bicycle home. Out of the blue, the driver of a SUV hit-and-run the waiter and leaves him seriously injured on the road. The ambitious real estate agent Dino Ossola drives his daughter Serena to the manor of her boyfriend Massimiliano Bernaschi. He snoops around and befriends his wealthy father Giovanni Bernaschi expecting to get along with him and invest in his investment fund. Dino lies and hires a secured loan of 700 thousand Euros from Giampi to invest in Bernaschi's speculative fund expecting to have 40% a year in return, and disregards the risks involved. His guarantee is Serana's house, where he lives with his second wife, the psychologist Roberta (Valeria Golino) that is pregnant, and Serena. Meanwhile, Giovanni's wife Carla Bernaschi sees an old theater that will be demolished and convinces her husband to buy the building and restore the theater. She invites her former theater Professor Donato Russomanno, who has a crush on her, to be the art director and gets closer to him. Things go awry when Bernaschi's fund flops and loses 90% of its value and the cyclist dies at the hospital. The police inspector finds that Massimiliano's SUV was responsible for the hit-and-run. But who was driving the car? The alcoholic Massimiliano? His girlfriend Serena? Or someone else?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
