Our Country

2016

Synopsis

In Italy, there’s a world that’s helping the country grow: the workers and mediators of the SPRAR network’s reception projects, a public system based on the synergy between municipalities, the Ministry of the Interior, and associations. ZaLab wanted to tell this story, following the lives, thoughts, dreams, and struggles of those who work every day to build a complex and necessary future.

The idea was proposed in 2016 for a call for proposals from the FAMI fund managed by the Ministry of the Interior. The call was won, and the film was made. However, it was never released because the Ministry, which owns the film rights, locked it away. Both under Marco Minniti as Minister and now under Matteo Salvini.

We believe it’s a grave mistake to keep the story of this Italy hidden, even more so today when it’s suffering from measures and rumors of isolation and segregation.

ZaLab would have liked Paese Nostro to be shown from the moment it was finalized in early 2017.

This wasn’t possible. We still couldn’t do it today, but instead we’re showing it.

We’re making the film some people would rather you not see available to everyone for free. To request it, contact us at distribuzione@zalab.org.

Trailer

OUR COUNTRY

Stories and Characters

PORTO SAN GIORGIO (Fermo)

In early 2016, during a long existential crisis, Federica accepted the offer to coordinate the project dedicated to mental health in Porto San Giorgio. She viewed the decision as an ethical choice, a personal change of heart, and partly as a form of atonement. Disappointed by the reaction of her former colleagues, who didn’t understand her choice, she announced the job change to some of her friends over a cocktail party by the sea. This was the same time as Emmanuel’s murder: talking about refugees wasn’t exactly easy, and people were divided on the subject.

Starring Federica Pietracci, Jamil Hussain, Ehis Enaruna, Foday Diof, Anthony Francis, Abdul Basi Amiri, Maria Gabriella Laurenza, Marco Mancini

Story by Michele Aiello and Sara Zavarise

Directed by Sara Zavarise

Cinematography by Matteo Calore

Sound by Michele Aiello

Shooting and sound by Martina Cocco and Francesco Geraci (additional days)

PALERMO

Lucia is 27 years old; she returned to Palermo after a period of study in Milan, eager to contribute to the city’s redemption, but somewhat skeptical about the real possibilities of doing so. She discovers that the project in which she invested two years of her life, which she helped develop, but above all within which she grew up, still has a month to go, and that there is no certainty about the possibility of continuing beyond December 31st. Her uncertainty and bewilderment are especially for the project’s beneficiaries, some of whom have had complex experiences with human trafficking, and whom Lucia does not feel she can abandon overnight.

Starring Lucia Pepe, Yodith Abraha, Luca Cumbo, Ibrahim Akuwono, Davide Pepe

Written and directed by Stefano Collizzolli

Photography by Sebastiano Facco

Sound by Alberto Cagol

Editing by Stefano Collizzolli

Music by Sergio Marchesini

CHIESANUOVA (Turin)

Hassan, a very young man, leaves Iran for Japan. In Japan, he meets Monica, a Colombian woman, who will become his wife. The two live between Japan, Iran, and Colombia. When their first daughter, Najeli, is born in Iran, Monica asks to move: she doesn’t want to raise a girl in an Islamic country. It’s difficult, however, to find a country that will grant visas to both a Colombian and an Iranian; and, after a series of vicissitudes, the young family finds itself in Italy, without a residence permit and unable to continue their journey. They are welcomed in Chiesanuova, a small town in Piedmont, and after Tokyo, Tehran, and Medellin, the impact of living in a town of 200 inhabitants is not easy. Hassan explains that he wanted to leave the next day… and that he stayed for eight years, and now he has no intention of leaving. On the contrary, he has just obtained Italian citizenship and is working on a SPRAR project.

Starring Hassan Vaezi, Annalisa Fontana, Fabio Donna Bedino, Gordana Vujovjc, Monica Vaezi, Najeli Vaezi, Vita Navratilova, Sirafi Cham, Alina Aintablian

Story and direction by Stefano Collizzolli

Cinematography by Sebastiano Facco

Sound by Alberto Cagol

Editing by Giuseppe Duca

Music by Sergio Marchesini

SCHIO (Vicenza)

Alice is 25 years old, gay, and has been living with her partner Giulia for a year. She entered the world of reception and care a few months ago, starting as a worker for the SPRAR project in Sant’Orso. The challenges of this profession force her to deeply explore her own fragilities, fears, and ideals, leading her to live out her own personal coming-of-age story throughout the film.

Starring Alice Bedin, Giulia Marngoni, Ermanno Marogna, Maurizio Bicocchi, Lidia Dellai, Davide Dal Prà, Arafa Lone, Taofik Ahmad, Jean Daniel Foutou, Toto Kossi Shella, Sarah Foutou, Daniela Zago, Elena De Zen, Chiara Ragni, Ilaria Bedin

Story and direction by Matteo Calore

Photography by Sebastiano Facco

Sound by Alberto Cagol

Editing by Sara Zavarise, Chiara Russo

Music by Sergio Marchesini

LAMEZIA TERME

Rosanna and Fabio work as legal workers for the SPRAR “Due Soli” project in Lamezia Terme. They both share and address the ongoing challenges of reception in Italy, and they do so with the same perspective and the same attention to the individual, placing respect for the dignity, aspirations, and individual plans of those welcomed at the center. For both, being legal workers is much more than a simple job that begins and ends in the office: the goal that drives them both is the protection of human rights and the awareness of how much a document can change a person’s life.

With Rosanna Liotti and Fabio Saliceti

Directed and Edited by Matteo Calore

Photography by Sebastiano Facco

Sound by Alberto Cagol

CASERTA

Mamadou is from the Ivory Coast and works as a reception worker. His experience as a migrant and his sensitivity to the bureaucratic and daily difficulties faced by beneficiaries (which he himself experienced in recent years, before obtaining a residence permit and this job) help him understand and resolve the problems SPRAR faces day by day. But at the same time, Mamadou confronts diversity, which emerges in his relationship with Mariarita, a legal worker at SPRAR and his girlfriend.

With Kouassi Pli Adama Mamadou, Mariarita Cardillo, Imma D’Amico, Morò Musah, Malik Donkor, Virginia Crovella, Federica Crovella, Massimo Cocciardo, Prosper Doe, Vincenzo Fiano, Giovanni Paolo Mosca

Directed and photographed by Matteo Calore and Andrea Segre

Edited by Sara Zavarise

Sound by Alberto Cagol