18/04/2012 - The French filmmaker yesterday opened the 13th Festival of European Cinema with his film Indignados, screened in Italian premiere on a day dedicated to the dignity of work

From the international protest movement of the ‘Outraged’ to the Fiat workers’ controversial contractual affairs, the Lecce Festival of European Cinema yesterday opened its 13th edition with a focus on the theme of the dignity of work.

Waiting for an Italian distributor, Indignados [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tony Gatlif
film profile], Tony Gatlif’s film about a Europe in protest against the dictatorship of money, inspired on the book by French diplomat Stéphane Hessel "Indignez-vous!" and screened at the latest Berlin Film Festival (see the news), had its Italian premiere in Lecce, where the author revealed some backstage stories: "In the beginning, TV channel Arte had asked me for a feature about Hessel, so I thought of going to film the protests at the Puerta del Sol di Madrid", he told us. "Once there, however, I was struck by the power of the movement and I decided to make a film, with my own means and money. But it was an important thing to do".

Stéphane Hessel, who saw the film in Berlin, found it "a perfect continuation of the book" said Gatlif, "he was particularly struck by the poetry and not the violence, by its message of peace". As for his choice of lead character, a real illegal immigrant, the director talks about having met her in Paris while having a coffee: "Within 24 hours, I took her to Greece with me for the shooting. I did as Pasolini used to, who picked strangers for his films". And staying on the subject of Italian directors, to the question as to who he believes best exemplifies outrage in Italy, he answered without hesitation: "Nanni Moretti. For Il caimano [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Nanni Moretti
film profile], but also for his previous work".

But yesterday was also the day of Italian manual workers in Lecce, and the controversial union agreement signed with Fiat in January 2011, as a result of a referendum which effectively pushed workers into a tight corner: either they kept their job under tough circumstances or they lost it. The subject was the focus of three documentaries: Jacopo Chessa’s L'accordo, a collection of the voices and ideas of workers, unionists, politicians and analysts about the contractual affair of the Turin-based plant; Gianni Ubaldo Canale and Gianfranco Crua’s Privilegi operai, about the life of workers on a production line and their tiring and alienating routines; Daniele Segre’s Sic Fiat Italia, a journey into the history of work through sequences from twenty years of his films dedicated to the world of manual workers.

The films screened in competition include Croatia’s Daddy by Dalibor Matanić: a story about the meeting between two sisters and a father who had abandoned them many years before, a family drama with dark undertones which borders on thriller, in a context of complete and snowed-in isolation. The director won the Golden Olive Tree for Best Film in Lecce 2009 with Kino Lika [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

(Translated from Italian)