There is nothing special here
Synopsis
There’s only one road from the south to the north of Italy, a narrow, one-way street. It’s usually from southern Italy that one leaves.
In the south, even today, for many people there comes a point in their lives when a future far from home seems the only option. And so, every year, entire regions and communities empty, standing still and watching thousands of young people leave. “Qui ci è niente speciale” (There’s Nothing Special Here) revisits this old story to tell its opposite. The stories of Peppino, Anna, Alessandro, Marco, and Ginevra are the stories of people in their twenties and thirties who have chosen to live in southern Italy. Stories of youth and ruins, of roots and a desire to understand the world, of tradition and identity. But also stories of the future. Of those who thought it was right to defend the right to imagine a tomorrow here too, of those who wanted to roll up their sleeves and try to do something for their community.
Trailer
Director’s vision
One thing that has always struck me about southern Italy, and Puglia in particular, is the sheer quantity of abandoned ruins and ruins. Some stand clearly visible in the middle of uncultivated fields along the roadsides, others hide beneath the sea. All tell of other lives, dating back centuries, or sometimes just a few decades.
During the first week of scouting, as I began to converse with those I didn’t yet know would become the protagonists of my film, those ruins often came to mind. They seemed to fit perfectly with that almost dormant landscape, with those slow, at times seemingly motionless rhythms, with those conversations capable of taking their time, of not being rushed. Only as the days passed, however, and as I listened carefully to the words of Peppino, Anna, Alessandro, Marco, and Ginevra, did I truly realize what those ruins and ruins had to do with their lives.
There’s nothing special here; it’s the story of the past observing the present. It’s the testimony of constant emigration, observing the lives of those who decided to stay; it’s the story of a reconstruction that’s clearly aware of the ruins on which it builds. And then it’s the story of an attempt at rebirth, of the arduous search for a viable alternative future, of the strength to take nothing for granted. Even here, where—as Peppino, Anna, Alessandro, Marco, and Ginevra all told me at least once—”There’s really nothing special.”
Davide Crudetti
Credits
Festivals and prizes
Salina Doc Fest 2022 ISOLE.DOC NATIONAL COMPETITION // UNITED FOR THE ENVIRONMENT International Preview: September 16, 2022
