This thoughtful documentary from a trio of Italian directors feels cut from the same cloth as Michael Apted’s long-running TV docuseries Up. Its three film-makers – the best known of them is Alice Rohrwacher, who made Happy as Lazzaro and The Wonders – travelled around Italy, top to toe, interviewing teenagers. Their film gives gentle insights into Italian society, finding subtle and complex things to say about class and wealth inequality.
At first, the directors’ stiff formal questions stump some of the young people. In answer to “What is the future to you?”, a group of trainee beauticians collapse into embarrassed giggles. Eventually they fall into a heated debate about whether it’s important or not for women to be financially independent from their husbands. There is a poignant moment in a residential unit for unaccompanied young refugees. Heartbreakingly, one boy says that after everything he’s been through, he just wants a normal life. “I don’t want to go to the moon.”
