The premiere of “Italy, love it or leave it” in Berlin

by Manuela Castiglione | Feb 19, 2012 in Different Cultures, Suggestion | Leave A Comment

With the victory of Fratelli Taviani´s movie the 62nd Berlinale film festival closes under the sign of “Italianness”.

But when I thought the “party” was over I came across an independent documentary film entitled “Italy, love it or leave it” directed and interpreted by Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi.

At the Babylon movie theatre filled yesterday evening by a thick audience of Italians living in Berlin, I followed the story of Gustav and Luca debating if they should leave the Belpaese or not. Before leaving they decided to travel through the country with a FIAT 500 in search of reasons to stay or to go.

The documentary is a well balanced transversal cut through Italy able to show the most different realities and gears that are present in our country: from the disappointed FIAT and Bialetti workers to the optimist friar, from the Naples comedian presenting the garbage forecast to the Sicilians who want to redefine the architectural aspect of the unfinished concrete eco-monsters, the so called “Incompiuto siciliano”.

Everybody in the cinema was deeply touched by the topic so smartly and ironically handled by the two young directors. As an Italian abroad I laughed, I nodded my head throughout the all movie but I also felt challenged and hit by a bitter and judgemental comment by the Italian writer Camilleri – interviewed in the movie – who points at people leaving the country calling them deserters.

In the nice debate following the movie a big applause was unleashed when a charming lady in the audience – living abroad for 30 years – stood up and proudly defended hers and our choice, changing the last sentence of the movie “Life is too short not to be Italian” in “Life is too short not to be Italian…in Berlin”, giving lightness to the choice of many of us who decided to open up our lives to new opportunities and challanges in another country.

What would you expect as an ending, that Gustav and Luca remained in Italy or they decided to move?

Go and watch the movie, because it is a small pearl of the contemporary Italian mood!