The Jungle

original title:

The Jungle

directed by:

cinematography:

production:

distribution:

country:

Italy

year:

2021

film run:

75'

format:

colour

status:

Ready (21/09/2021)

festivals & awards:

Elisa Menon, a 37-year old theatre director and actress lives in Gorizia, a small provincial town in northern Italy. Having worked for years locally, she is invited to join a theatre company in Berlin. She is just about to leave for Germany, when Hassan Zeidi, a 26-year-old Pakistani cultural mediator, contacts her and asks her to organise a theatrical workshop for some friends of his, asylum-seeking boys and young men who frequent the Jungle, part of the woodlands bordering the banks of the Isonzo, the river running through the city. Elisa is hesitant at first but accepts, mentally reserving the option to leave if called to work in Berlin. The workshop induces her to reflect on the intrinsic meaning of departure while it also provides the young migrants, hovering on the margins of city life, with the chance to confront themselves with the local residents by means of a theatrical performance staged in the Jungle itself.