"Chief of Police Manara" is an Italian crime drama about an unconventional Sicilian police commissioner working in Tuscany. Luca Manara, played by Guido Caprino, breaks all the rules, while his partner, Inspector Lara Rubino, played by Roberta Giarusso, tries to do things by the book. All kinds of sparks fly between them. The show ran very successfully for two seasons.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
The dinner for four is having trouble getting off the ground, and not everyone is thrilled with the situation.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicily
The red soil found in Contini's clothes is looking more and more important. Sergio ends up being helpful to the investigation.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Lara and Luca bring in a suspect, but something in his expression makes them wonder about his guilt. Lara's aunt keeps looking for Brigadiere.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Lara is having trouble dealing with her feelings, but her aunt distracts her with some information concerning the deceased.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Lara finally makes a decision and acts on it. That doesn't make it any easier, though.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Belleggia is a tough nut to crack in the interrogation room, and Toscani has a rough time. As usual, Caterina is friendly with people involved in the murder, this time making friends with the widow of the victim.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Massimo doesn't give up! Lara's at a loss for words, but then Luca and Lara go off to question a chronic complaint filer.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Lara confesses her doubts about Massimo to Sardi, while Manara, who is in a foul mood, gives some advice to his commissioner friend about how to behave with Ginevra on their upcoming date.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Lara is in quite a quandary about the roses. She's got some tough decisions to make! Meanwhile Toscani and Manara get up to speed on the investigation.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Things don't add up regarding the buttero, and Brigadiere, Lara's aunt's dog, has gone missing.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
A buttero is an Italian working cowboy from the Maremma part of Tuscany. And one was just found—morto (dead)!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Here we are at the beginning of a new episode. Lara has been on the boat with Massimo, but now she's got to get right back to work, because someone seems to have fallen off a horse!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara is finally on the boat with Massimo, but is she really happy to be there? Her indifference is working its magic on Luca, whereas poor Ginevra doesn't even know the meaning of fare l'indifferente (playing hard to get). And thus concludes this episode!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The case gets solved, but not exactly in the way we expect it to. Lara is finally free to take her vacation days!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara's aunt shows up at headquarters with some bizarre news, and also makes some very simple but crucial observations about the famous wedding dress. Luca and Lara leap into action!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca interrogates Stefano, and has Sally come in as well. Who's telling the truth, and who's hiding something?
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
For one reason or another, nobody gets much sleep after the evening at the Tuxedo, but Manara is in his boss's office bright and early to report in person.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The scene is set at the Tuxedo, but no one's ready for the one person to show up who could ruin everything.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
There's lots going on in this puntata (episode). Luca is in trouble (again) with his boss, but sidesteps him because they're getting closer and closer to solving the case. Seeing Lara walk into the Tuxedo "incognito" has quite an effect on everyone, from bikers to colleagues, to boyfriends!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Rubino and Sardi go to visit Marianna at the circus grounds, and Manara has an unpleasant encounter with the motorcyclist's father.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Melanie, the pretty bartender comes to headquarters with information. She flirts unabashedly with Manara. Lara and her aunt recount the circus show for Manara and a possibly very important detail crops up by chance.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara keeps her promise to the doctor, but in the process falls victim to some gossip among her colleagues at headquarters.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
A pleasant evening at the circus gets interrupted when Lara gets a phone call and rushes off to the hospital.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Let the show begin! We're at the circus, and the ringmaster looks familiar to one of the women in the audience. Meanwhile, Manara has un unexpected encounter as he leaves the nightspot.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca, posing as a John Wayne type, goes to the country music bar, and meets up, quite unexpectedly, with someone he had just met the day before.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Toscani obtains some precious information, but as usual, he's not so quick on the draw to know how important it is. His wife, Sardi, has gotten handy with the software to crack the cell phone. Lara and Luca will be going to two different and unusual places of entertainment in the evening: Luca to a country music motorcycle joint, and Lara to the circus.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
There's a meeting to report new information on the case, and Luca asks a very unusual favor of Lara. You won't want to miss the scene.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca and Lara find Sally at the supermarket and question her. Ginevra explains the results of the autopsy to Luca, but there's still plenty of mystery surrounding this case.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Personal relations between Luca and Lara may be tenuous, but where work is concerned, they're a great team.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Here we go with a new episode! Lara's enjoying some time off with Massimo, but do we really think it can last? Because, naturalmente, there's a new case to solve.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
At the beach party there's a chain reaction (as the title of this episode implies), but this time no dead bodies are involved.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The truth comes out, and, even though Sianelli is dead, he's able to say something important through pictures.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
We're getting very close to solving the case! The night is a long one for Lara and Luca, what with questioning Calcaterra and going on a search for evidence.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca and Lara question the tanner, and find out some interesting facts about Calcaterra, the gardener, but are no closer to solving the crime. The victim's wife shares her worries with Luca, and Lara and her aunt hear some strange noises in the garden.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
After the fire everyone gathers in the commissioner's office, to discuss the situation. When Lara and Luca get left alone, they try to sort out what happened...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
So much excitement in just a few moments! Lara and Luca let their true feelings get the better of them, and...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
It may not come as a surprise that Toscani, after hours of ruining his eyes looking at the footage, does indeed find something strange. Unwittingly, and indirectly, he also saves the life of the Cine Service owner.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
At police headquarters, a suspect gets questioned, but Manara isn't totally convinced. When conversation between Luca and Lara starts getting personal, Toscani walks in...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
There are irregularities in this case, and as both Manara and Rubino know, that's where you look!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca and Lara go to question the tanner. He's not as forthcoming as they would have liked, but Luca, true to his nature, breaks the rules once again.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Zia Caterina might have found herself a gardener/handyman, and Luca and Lara locate the reels of film left by the film maker.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The police find the missing jeep and filmmaker, but what initially looks like an accident has some strange aspects about it.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara isn't happy about his boss's decision, but there's no time to sit and complain. If he can't take time off, no one can (and that includes Lara who's on a boat with Massimo)!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara is all excited about going home to Catania for a week of vacation, but do we really believe that he'll be allowed to leave?
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
This episode comes to a close with a pizza party at sunset among Lara's colleagues. Certain people are able to see a beautiful green ray in that sunset, making the famous legend come true.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara and Luca try to follow protocol, but when that doesn't work, they barge ahead with their investigation, and get into an extremely dangerous situation. Fortunately for everyone, Lara doesn't lose her cool...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara is all excited about something she found out, but when she goes looking for Luca, she gets an unexpected and unpleasant surprise. Catching herself, she "gets over it" and the two of them start in on a late night search. All they need is a warrant.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Sardi and Rubino find some interesting and relevant records on Nicasto. Lara tries to make sense of it all, and her aunt, unwittingly gives her an important tip. And where is Luca all this time???
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca and Lara get saved by none other than Massimo, with the help of Nicasto and his boat. Later however, at headquarters, they find out that Nicasto is not what he seems! There's more investigating to do.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca and Lara manage to get a boat from Massimo to chase down the fishing boat they want a paint sample from. But of course things are never so simple. Luca loves the danger, and feels like Steve McQueen, but Lara is scared out of her wits, and sparks fly between them.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara and Luca go to the boat to verify Ms. Brumelt's change of alibi, and they come across Massimo who works there. You can easily imagine Manara's expression... but he then gets a call about some rotten fish in a van, and a surprise.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
In both cases under investigation, it's been discovered that witnesses have been withholding information from the police.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
New suspects and witnesses start turning up in one of the cases being investigated, thanks to Lara's aunt.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The investigation proceeds, Lara receives some red roses at work, to the consternation of Manara, and Aunt Caterina does her part as well.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The cadaver on the autopsy table doesn't stop Ginevra from wanting to give the commissioner more than just a report. Lara and Serena are at the docks where they see someone they're not supposed to see, and meet someone from Lara's past.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Inspectors Rubino and Sardi go to the Etruscan museum to investigate the theft of the Green Ray. They have a few moments for girl talk and ice cream.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara starts investigating the unusual catch, and later he and Lara try to talk. But there's also the museum theft to take care of.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
We're at the beginning of a new episode, featuring a strange catch by some fishermen, and the disappearance of a precious jewel from the local Etruscan museum.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Everyone is happy that Marcuccio ended up safely at Caterina's house, and he's now ready to go home to his mother. But what about Luca's birthday? What about Lara? Tune in for the final part of this episode.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara has it all figured out, and questions his suspect, who reconstructs the murder for him. Toscani, on the other hand, has ended up in the hospital, and becomes a hero in the eyes of the Questore, who never quite seems to appreciate Manara's efforts, and sees only his faults.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Toscani isn't thrilled with organizing the birthday party for the guy who "stole" his job, and is complaining to his wife. She steers the conversation around to their love life. The party gets cut short because Luca has a flash of genius, and figures out the case based on what Toscani says in his toast. He leaves for the hospital with two detectives and barely has time to acknowledge Lara when she walks in late to the party.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Marcuccio is in the hospital, and as planned, zia Caterina goes to see him. But all he will come out with are lines from one of Leopardi's poems. Meanwhile Romei is anxious to have the letters he considers his own, but things aren't so simple.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Back at her aunt's house, Lara deals with Giulia when she comes back, and hashes things over with her aunt in the morning. Meanwhile Manara is once again moving his desk around, while discussing both the case and Giulia Chiamparani with Toscani, who's curious as to why Giulia disappeared so quickly.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
In the eyes of Manara's boss, Giulia is the heroine, having recovered the letters, and Manara is a failure for having let the murderer escape from under his nose. Now Giulia's work is finished and she's just about ready to go back to Rome, but she still has some unfinished business... business she doesn't want Lara's help with.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Luca and Giulia are finally alone, in a car, at night, in a typical spot for lovers. Hmm...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
After a fruitless search in the rain, Luca and Brigadiere head home, but all of a sudden the dog starts sniffing around a hunter's shack, and sure enough, Luca discovers Marcuccio hiding inside, but the big man is not talking. And if that weren't enough, Manara's boss continues to put pressure on him and his team to bring in the perpetrator.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Marcuccio has gotten hungry, and so he's gone to see the only person he could trust, Lara's zia Caterina. But by the time anyone could come to help her, he'd disappeared again, leaving his jacket behind. Lara's dog, Brigadiere, gets a good whiff and goes off with Luca to look for Marcuccio. A storm has come up, making things more difficult.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara and Luca go to interrogate a suspect whose only alibi for the night of the murder depends on Marcuccio, who is still missing. Meanwhile, Giulia intercepts a cryptic phone call.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Amidst murder and insomnia, Manara is attempting to eat his croissant during the autopsy in the morgue. And Ginevra... well, she has an infallible solution to help him get back to normal.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The police intercept a phone call between Marcuccio and his mother, but it's too short to trace. Marcuccio recites the first line of Leopardi's most famous poem, "L'infinito" [The Infinite] to his mother. Giulia spends the night at Lara's and they watch the movie of the famous party. The next day Lara has some interesting news for Manara, from both Giulia and from her aunt!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara and Giulia have some catching up to do, but how candid are they being with each other? Do we detect a bit of jealousy? Meanwhile Commissioner Manara has to deal with both Romei, the chicken guy, and his buxom, brassy wife, who keeps trying to catch Luca's eye.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The arrival of Giulia Chiamparini, the expert in Cultural Heritage, makes quite a hit at headquarters!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara goes to see the mother of Fazi's missing assistant, Marcuccio. It turns out he's "different" but with a phenomenal capacity for numbers. He's also a big guy, with big feet! Meanwhile, Lara and Luca are called to their boss's office. He wants results, fast, and so he's called in an expert in Cultural Assets from Rome to work alongside them.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Murder in the library. The curator of the town library was found dead by his secretary, and the assistant librarian hasn't shown up for work. Some valuable correspondence is missing, and there are some suspicious shoe prints on the floor. Manara and his team have gotten busy trying to figure it all out.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commissioner Manara is back with a new episode, which opens, not only with the usual murder, this time in a library, but also with a care package from Manara's mother, full of Sicilian specialties such as melanzane sottolio or sott'olio, (eggplant in oil). Sottolio is a traditional and well-loved way of preserving many foods, and can be distinguished from sottaceto (in vinegar), or in salamoia (in water and salt). Of course, everyone at headquarters is more interested in the Sicilian pastries!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
In the end, Lara decides that Luca Manara isn't such a bad commissioner after all. She might even tell him that to his face... sooner or later.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Although Commissario Manara's has resolved the case, his unorthodox methods are unacceptable to his superior, who threatens to have him transferred to the hinterlands of Sardinia.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
At this point the murderer is easily discovered and just as easily confesses. The evening of the murder gets revisited and all previous doubts vanish. But what's to become of the killer?
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
In the presence of Ginevra who has come to thank both Lara and Manara for saving her reputation, they look once again at the painting of Lorenzo. A detail gives them the key to finding the murderer!
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commissioner Manara and Inspector Rubino figure out who wrote the love letters and Lara conducts the appropriate interrogation.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
An important new element in the investigation comes into play: some romantic letters found at the victim's house. Lara is comparing the handwriting to that of the note found next to his dead body.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
With the information given by Ginevra, Luca and Lara go to the pharmacy to find out about recent sales of two drugs. When combined, the drugs are fatally poisonous. That same day the funeral takes place and the whole town is there. Manara takes advantage of this to look for new suspects.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara decides to question the medical examiner Ginevra, the last person to have seen the victim alive. Manara had a different idea about how to handle his witness.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Sardi wants to comfort Toscani after he'd been punched in the face by the bass drum player. Manara wonders where people go in the evening, and Lara, after seeing the Commissioner in a car talking to Ginevra, goes home and confides in her Aunt about why she can't stand him.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The rehearsal for Lorenzo's funeral gets interrupted by Manara and Toscani who want to question Scudieri, the bass drum player. Meanwhile, Lara is trying not to explode with anger about Manara's handling of Ginevra Rosmini.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara questions the woman who painted the picture of Lorenzo and gets some further information from the notary's wife, regarding the boat builder.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara's aunt Caterina goes to police headquarters to show Commissioner Manara a painting she found at a flea market, that could help with the investigation.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The murder weapon has been identified by Inspector Rubino, and she has a nifty program to discover the password for the victim's handheld organizer, found at his house.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commissioner Manara goes to the victim's house with Inspector Rubino, and meanwhile two police officers summon the band leader for questioning.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The band members are interrogated one by one at police headquarters.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
As soon as Ginevra arrives at the scene of the crime, she seems to feel ill. It also seems that Poggiali had been quite a ladies' man.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commissario Manara is back, this time in a hotel room with leaky water pipes. But he's off to solve another murder case which seems to have something to do with music.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
If Manara thinks his boss is going to pat him on the back for having solved the case, he's mistaken. Not all is lost, however, for Malvina and the Count. With Lara, though, things don't quite go the way he'd hoped.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Malvina owns up to her actions regarding Charles Ferrant and his threats.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Cione is allowed to go home after Lapo admits to the shooting. However, some aspects of the investigation, like the mysterious blood stain in the cellar, still don't square.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
While Cioni is questioned by Manara, Count Lapo returns on the scene. Unfortunately, his memory of what happened is very imperfect.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara obtains a warrant and brings Cioni in for questioning. Cioni continues to deny any meeting with the Count. This become untenable when he's asked to consider that his fingerprints are on a glass in the Count's cellar.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara and Lara go over the points of the case. Lara suggests getting a warrant for Cioni, the Count's difficult neighbor.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Charles Ferrant's body has been discovered by a fisherman. The Count is still missing, and Lara's aunt wants a word with Malvina, the Count's housekeeper.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
While they're huddled together in the meat truck, Commissioner Manara tries to wheedle out of Lara the reason she's still angry at him from police academy days.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Ferocious bull terriers force Manara and Rubino into a refrigerated meat truck.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Cioni, the Count's neighbor and rival vintner, is interrogated by Manara and Lara. Without a warrant, there's only so far they can go.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
"We have a missing Count, a cellar full of blood, a mysterious Frenchman..." is how Commissioner Manara sums up the investigation to this point.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara's aunt visits Malvina, bringing along her snooping dog. Together they find a ripped up business card in a wastebasket.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The Commissioner and Lara question Count Lapo's oenologist, one of the last people to have seen the Count.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
While the countess points out where she found the cartridge shell, Manara and his squad find blood spatters on the floor of the cellar.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Manara and his team are still looking for the hit-and-run driver who killed the tramp, and investigating the vineyard owner's disappearance. Lara gives Manara a clue as to why she's still angry with him.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
A man found dead in the middle of the road, the cyclist who found him, and Commissioner Manara who as usual, is the center of attention.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
We begin a new episode of Commissioner Manara. Lara is bedridden with a fever, and there is a missing person reported at the station. And if that weren't enough, someone was found dead by the side of the road.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The Lenni case will be filed as consenting manslaughter, in view of the fact that he was coerced. Commissioner Manara asks again about being transferred but doesn't get very far.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Dr. Masini confesses to having falsified his diploma in order to practice medicine, but reveals some surprises about the death of Lenni.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commisioner Manara and Lara continue their investigation, interviewing Dr. Di Censi, whose answers enable them to make an important connection with a note they'd found of the late Professor Lenni's. They go to Dr. Masini's office and find him just about to leave.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
It turns out Lenni's will contains some surprises. Someone important is excluded completely and another person, quite unexpectedly, is included. Meanwhile, Caterina is puzzled by Doctor Masini's behaviour the day of Lenni's death.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara visits the dead professor's daughter and it becomes ever clearer to Manara that the mother's alibi won't hold.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Lara Rubino visits Lenni's villa and finds that his wife has broken in. Manara uses his considerable charm on a vet.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
The autopsy shows that the victim couldn't have pulled the trigger, but Manara's boss insists on suicide. Manara and his team have other ideas.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
From the gardener, Michele, we learn that the dead professor was not well liked. Rubino lets us know about her soured friendship with Manara at the police academy.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara arrives at his hotel, and the clerk is curt with him until she learns he's the new commissioner. Manara and the deceased are the topics discussed by Rubino and her aunt.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Rubino, the new inspector, can't stand being in the same room with Manara. And when he doesn't even remember why, she really gets angry. But then they get some interesting news from the morgue...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commissioner Manara meets up with Lara Rubino, his old classmate from the police academy. She's less than happy to see him and slaps him right across the face.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara meets his new boss and from the outset there's tension. We learn that Manara was transferred to his new post because of an affair between Manara and the wife of his former boss.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Commissioner Manara arrives on the scene of the supposed suicide. He questions a witness, and talks to the victim's doctor, and to the medical examiner, who turns out to be an attractive woman who has no problem with shyness.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Il Commissioner Manara is an Italian TV series set in the Maremma (southern Tuscany), which centers on Luca Manara, an unorthodox and highly seductive, newly arrived police commissioner, played by Guido Caprino.
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