LUOGHI COMUNI
Right of Occupancy and Urban Solidarity
Thursday, Oct 22nd 2015, 9 pm, Cineteatro Baretti
by Angelo Loi, Italy 2015, 75′
Mona has been living in Italy for 18 years, but she dreams of going back to Egypt. Both of her sons love Egypt, and yet for no reason they would ever leave Italy; her husband Ahmed hates Egypt and does not like Italy very much… What is, if there is one, their common place? Focusing on a tough main character like Mona, the film deals with concepts such as community, motherland, family and the complexity of the word “home”. In order to do that, it follows Mona through an eviction and the choice of an employment, in a troubled Italian Odissey which may eventually reveals a new dimension of solidarity. The film ends with a symbolic return to Egypt, where Mona had left a brother who she had looked after like a mother, and where she can trust about the future.
Discussion led by: the director, Manuela Olagnero (Università di Torino)
Angelo Loi started his activities in the film industry in 1996, as co-producer of the film “Once we were strangers”, Emanuele Crialese’s first work. In 2001 he collaborated with AMREF in a research on communication which aimed to identify new ways to talk about Africa by using media. That is why he produces “Sillabario Africano” (African Speller), a series of 20 theme episodes written and filmed by 70 young people in the slums of Nairobi. He is currently working on the creation of community TV channel in a slum of Nairobi. His documentaries gained him the Cinema del Reale Prize and the Cinema della Pace Prize, both in 2006. Since 2006, he has been teaching in European Social Documentary (ESODOC) seminaries and “video partecipato” at Scuola Zelig in Bolzano.
Manuela Olagnero is a professor of General Sociology at Università di Torino. Her research activity pertains the evaluation of Housing policies, active Development policies and Early Childhood policies. On this subjects, she has published works in Italy and abroad, such as: L’innovazione nelle politiche abitative. Programmi e collaudi di realtà, in “La Rivista delle Politiche Sociali”, n. 4, 2012, and with M. Filandri Housing inequality and social class in Europe in “Housing Studies” 2014.
