original title:
Patria
directed by:
screenplay:
Felice Farina, Beba Slijepcevic, Luca D'Ascanio, Dino Giarrusso, from the book by Enrico Deaglio with the same title
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
production:
Nina Film, supported by Ministero della Cultura, with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte
distribution:
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2014
film run:
89'
format:
colour
release date:
26/02/2015
festivals & awards:
A factory worker, Salvo, climbs up to the top of the tower overlooking the plant he works in - to protest against its closing, or maybe just out of blind rage - and threatens to jump. Another worker, Giorgio, who's a trade unionist diametrically opposed to Salvo's views, goes up there, too, to talk him down. Luca, the partially blind, autistic watchman, rounds out the trio in the tower. In one night, the three retrace the history of the last thirty years in their country.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
"I got around the basic documentary format by trying an experiment based on what I remember about a film I love, Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour: the way it connects fragments of archive footage to tell a contemporary story, merging them into a whole by synchronizing the emotions triggered by history and those stirred by the action in the scene. The result is indefinite, no less than the ocean of memory with its lights and shadows."