original title:
La cosa migliore
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
producer:
production:
Apapaja, Rai Cinema, supported by Ministero della Cultura, with the support of Emilia-Romagna Film Commission
distribution:
country:
Italy
year:
2024
film run:
98'
format:
colour
release date:
14/11/2024
festivals & awards:
From hip-hop to radical Islam. The story of the progressive isolation of Mattia, a 17-year oldboy raised in a post-industrial Italian province. How does the temptation of violence arise? And where does it lead?
DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
In recent years, many young people have left their lives in the West
to go and fight with jihadist groups in the Middle East. We hear a lot
about “radicalisation” and foreign fighters, but little about the profound
personal motivations behind these choices. Maybe in part due to the
fear of finding something terribly human and universal there. We all have
a dose of rage and dissatisfaction inside of us, a need for belonging and
a certain level of repressed violence. So why do most people go down
an ordinary path, while others make such radical choices?
The film does not attempt to explain such a complex phenomenon,
just tell the story of one of these people. Not his life as a jihadist, but the
two years leading up to his decision to leave. Mattia’s is the story of a
young man raised in a non-religious Italian working-class family; neither
stupider nor more violent than the average, and maybe actually more
intelligent and sensitive.
The film unfolds entirely through his eyes: his anger, his insecurities and
his genuine feelings of injustice. Experiencing his drift towards radicalism
in the first person, the audience will not share in his decision. But maybe
they will feel that this choice is, for a restless adolescent, the wrong
answer to the right questions.