Estate Romana

It is never easy to make a choice, certainly not if you want to focus on the new and vital tendencies of a national cinema. For the younger generations in Italy, the challenge is to start from first principles: in other words, to leave neo-realism and the 'Italian' comedy behind. But the youngest film-makers also see the need to think about the cinematographic language, in the light of new technology. It forced them towards experiment, it made them embrace the political extremists and poets ignored by official institutions (if not disbanded). To see that, you only have to remember that film-makers beloved of Rotterdam, such as Ricci Lucchi/Gianikian or Tonino De Bernardi, are only now being noticed in their home country.A film like Estate Romana is a little of all of this. Matteo Garrone has always worked on a small budget and with both fictional and documentary elements. In this way he tries to redesign the existential and geographical map of the imaginary, linked to his home city of Rome, and to overtake Fellini and Pasolini to the present. In addition he has tried to find (or rediscover) protagonists with experience of art and life, who have something to offer in their curiosity, humour and poetry. As a result, Estate Romana allows itself to be combined with the ever-innovative spirit of the festival of Rotterdam.(Cristina Piccino is film critic for Il Manifesto, one of the most important Italian newspapers.)