Le chiavi di casa

A realistic and sensitive, yet unsentimental film, in which a young father and the son he barely knows undertake a journey together from which above all the father learns a lot. Gianni Amelio has traveled with a child before. Yet this film is far from being a repetition of his widely praised Il ladro di bambini. If only because the journey this time is not to the south, but to the north. Gianni really meets his child for the first time when he takes on caring for him. In this respect, he is primarily put to the test psychologically. The young Paolo, who had previously grown up without his father, with the family of his dead mother, is severely handicapped, both physically and mentally. This was the result of a complicated birth during which his mother died. Gianni takes his unknown and unpredictable son with him to Berlin. Here, he hopes to find the specialists who can treat him. The film is above all an acting achievement – although being able to direct the handicapped Andrea Rossi is of course an achievement in itself. Also, at the moment when Charlotte Rampling appears in the story (as the medical specialist Nicole), the acting and directing achievements approach an even higher level. The quality of the actors and the power of the story (based on the autobiographical book Nati due volte by Giuseppe Pontiggia) transcends the latent Euro-pudding of characters and dialogues. (GjZ)