original title:
Le 7 giornate di Bergamo
directed by:
cast:
Simona Ventura, Matteo Agazzi, Oscar Battaglia, Maurizio Carrara, Nicola Cattaneo, Luigi Daleffe, Federica De Giuli, Don Giulio Dellavite, Sebastiano Favero, Pietro Foroni, Giorgio Gori, Riccardo Guazzato, Nicola Guazzato, Claudio Lanfranchi, Franco Locatelli, Giovanni Licini, Roberto Paratico, Domenico Pedrali, Gina Portella, Sergio Rizzini, Carlo Saffioti, Alessio Tiraboschi, Antonio Tonarelli, Ugolino Ugolini
screenplay:
Ambrogio Crespi, Giovanni Terzi, Luigi Crespi, Sergio Rizzini, Natascia Turato
cinematography:
Orazio Truglio
editing:
production:
country:
Italy
year:
2021
film run:
65'
format:
colour
status:
Ready (26/07/2021)
festivals & awards:
During February of 2020, a tragedy began that struck, as the first Western nation, Italy, and then went on to devastate the rest of world—the Covid-19 pandemic. So many images come to mind at the mere mention of this terrible virus, but one, above all, mercilessly describes those moments, symptomatic of a wound that will indelibly remain sealed in our collective consciousness—the coffins squeezed to capacity into military trucks in Bergamo. The whole area around the city of Bergamo was truly put to the test, there isn’t one family that wasn’t struck by the virus, the sound of ambulance sirens blared more than in any other city and the fear was so tangible that you could see it in the eyes of the inhabitants. However, it is in such moments as these that a true community comes together to find solutions; it is in such moments that courage and love come to the fore; it is in moments like these that an association like that of Italy’s Alpini mountain military force comes forward to help those in need. 7 days, that’s how long it took to build a hospital for the victims of Covid. This hospital proved a saving grace when the situation became truly grievous, bringing breath to a city which, like those suffering from the Coronavirus, could not breathe. However, this story is not about the hospital itself but about the people who promised, working day and night, that this miracle would come to pass. 7 days and, thanks to the Alpini, Bergamo can finally breathe again.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
Dozens of hours shot in March of 2020, during the construction of the Covid hospital on the Bergamo fairgrounds, only to return with the crew in May of 2021 when the hospital was dismantled. This structure, which welcomed hundreds of ill people, is seen in two distinct moments separated by fifteen months of hard work, with testimony by the healthcare workers and volunteers—Alpini, artisans and regular citizens—who made it all possible. It uses a table as a narrative device and precise yet buoyant storytelling with an ending charged with optimism.