They turned the familiar characters and quirks of migrant family life into an international comedy phenomenon. Now, after billions of online views and sold-out shows around the world, Sooshi Mango are taking their characters to the big screen in their first feature film, backed by Screen Australia and VicScreen.
The as-yet-untitled comedy, expected to reach Australian cinemas in late 2027, follows three stubborn Italian immigrants fighting to save their beloved social club from a mysterious health and wellness business threatening to take its place.
Starring brothers Joe and Carlo Salanitri and their longtime friend Andrew Manfre, the film will bring the trio’s familiar characters into a story about community, cultural identity and the changing neighbourhoods of multicultural Australia.
It is a natural setting for three comedians who have built their careers around the peculiarities of migrant family life: the neighbourhood institutions, the stubborn personalities, the cultural misunderstandings and the unspoken rules that govern households across multicultural Australia.
For Sooshi Mango, the move into cinema represents a considerable change in scale. What began as short comedy sketches shared online has grown into an international entertainment phenomenon, with more than nine million social media followers and arena audiences willing to pay to see characters they first encountered on their phones.
Yet much of their appeal rests on something considerably more intimate.
The characters are exaggerated, certainly, but their origins are so familiar to anyone who grew up in or around an Italian, Greek or other migrant household. There are the fathers who communicate through raised voices and elaborate hand gestures, the mothers whose concern often arrives disguised as criticism, and the particular mixture of affection, obligation and embarrassment that can accompany family life.
The comedy works because the audience recognises the people beneath the caricatures. For many second-generation Australians, it is also a reminder of a childhood spent moving between two cultures, often interpreting one for the benefit of the other.
That sense of recognition has travelled remarkably well.
The group’s Home Made tour included 63 Australian performances before expanding internationally in April 2026. Their world tour has taken them through North America and Europe, with a further European leg across October and November following strong demand.
According to the group’s representatives, the 2026 international itinerary encompasses 50 shows in 42 cities across 23 countries, an extraordinary reach for an Australian comedy act whose material is so closely associated with suburban migrant life.
Their success suggests that while the accents, expressions and customs may differ from country to country, the underlying family dynamics require little translation.
The film will be directed by Nick Kozakis, whose credits include Kick On, with a screenplay written by the three performers alongside Declan Fay. Paul Dainty and Cathy Rodda are producing, with Timothy Whiting as co-producer. Pizza Oven Productions is behind the project, and Roadshow will handle Australian distribution.
Joe Salanitri said the film would draw directly on the families that inspired their comedy.
“We’ve always wanted to bring our characters to the big screen, and now we get to tell a story inspired by the families we grew up in. Having Screen Australia’s support means so much to us.”
He added, with characteristic humour: “Now it’s just time for ‘lights, camera, meatballs!’ That’s how that goes right?!”
For Carlo Salanitri, the announcement marks the realisation of a longstanding ambition.
“This has been a lifelong dream and we can’t believe we are about to live it. We can’t wait to bring a hilarious movie to the silver screen.”
Andrew Manfre similarly described the prospect of making a feature film as something he had imagined since childhood.
“It’s one of those things you’d dream about as a kid at the cinema and it’s becoming a reality. We get to make people laugh on the big screen. Very grateful and blessed. Truly a pinch yourself moment.”
The film’s central premise also offers the opportunity to explore something that has always existed beneath Sooshi Mango’s humour: the importance of community spaces to Australia’s migrant generations.
For decades, social clubs have served as gathering places where families maintained their language, friendships and cultural traditions while building lives in a new country. They were places to play cards, share meals, argue about football and exchange news from home.
Making such a club the focus of a comedy about its possible disappearance gives the film a recognisable conflict between an older migrant generation and a changing neighbourhood.
It also presents a creative challenge. The exaggerated personalities and quick exchanges that work so effectively in short sketches and live performances will need to sustain a feature-length narrative. The success of the film may depend on how convincingly the trio can move their characters beyond familiar routines without losing the qualities that made them popular.
The production is among 75 narrative projects supported in Screen Australia’s October funding round, which allocated more than $16.9 million across film, television and short-form storytelling.
Other recipients include The Best Of, the feature directorial debut of Australian actress Toni Collette, and The Dark Lake, a television adaptation starring Phoebe Tonkin.
Screen Australia’s Director of Narrative Content, Louise Gough, said the latest investment reflected the range of distinctive perspectives emerging from Australian storytellers.
“Australian storytellers continue to captivate audiences with their creativity, originality and distinctive perspectives.”
For Sooshi Mango, whose achievements include an AACTA Award and an unlikely excursion into dance music, the film marks another expansion of their career. Their collaboration with Joel Fletcher and Orkestrated on ‘Tarantella’ reached No. 1 on the ARIA Club Chart, while their 2026 release ‘Italian Coffee Shop’ brought their distinctly Italian sense of humour into another musical setting.
It is an unusual trajectory for three comedians who began by impersonating their parents, but one that reflects the breadth of the audience they have cultivated.
The three men who turned memories of their parents and grandparents into comedy have found an audience far beyond the communities that inspired them.
Now, with a feature film centred on the preservation of a neighbourhood social club, they are returning to the very world from which their success began.
The untitled Sooshi Mango film is scheduled for release in late 2027.
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