Review: Io sto bene
– In his third fiction feature, Donato Rotunno follows two generations of expatriates whose paths intersect and paints a picture of the emotional state of the emigrant far from home
This article is available in French.
The theme of immigration is a theme that is close to the heart of the director. Donato Rotunno. Born in Luxembourg to Italian immigrant parents, the 55-year-old filmmaker has addressed the subject in many films he has made (notably in the documentary Terra Mia, Terra nostra) or produced through his company Tarantula Luxembourg. And this same theme also takes center stage in his third fictional feature film, Io sto bene, currently Luxembourg candidate for the next Oscar for best foreign film. It is a sober drama that sees two generations of Italian expatriates cross each other in a back and forth between past and present, and in a game of mirrors whose different reflective faces are all united in their quest for a better life. , the unresolved state of their romantic relationships and the longing they feel for their home.
The film begins on a train where three young men from southern Italy – Antonio, his cousin Vito and their friend Giuseppe (Alessio Lapice, Vittorio Nastri and Maziar Firouzi respectively) – each travel to a different destination: Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. It was the end of the 1960s and, like so many other compatriots overwhelmed by the economic crisis, they left the Belpaese behind in search of new work opportunities abroad, with the intention of returning home. six months – or at most a year – later and realizing their dream of marrying a beautiful Italian. But, as seen in the next scene, Antonio is now 80 years old, he has the face of Renato Carpentieri and he still lives in Luxembourg, celebrated for his professional achievements but, ultimately, alone. During this same ceremony where Antonio is rewarded, we find Léo (Sara Serraiocco), a young Italian DJ who also lives alone in Luxembourg, after being dumped by her boyfriend while on tour.
“I just want to go home,” Antonio explains to Leo when they speak to each other for the first time in a parking lot, after she offers to help him when he seems a little lost. And the time during which this old man wanted to come “home” will be evidenced through the film’s long flashbacks which remind us of several decades back, until the moment when the twenty-year-old protagonist settles down for the first time in Luxembourg, finds work as a mason (“With several other Italians, I built Luxembourg”, he insists later), and meets and falls in love with the local girl Mady (Marie jung) – a determined, welcoming and emancipated young woman who will play a cardinal role in his life – until he commits a terrible misstep that takes him away from his family in Italy forever, where he will never return. Throughout the film, there is an alternation between the past and the current situation of Antonio (Lapice and Carpentieri agree brilliantly, especially on the level of tones), who has recently become widowed and is resigned to move in. in a retirement home, but above all with the current reality of an anxious Leo, who is fighting tooth and nail to build a new life abroad, and wants to avoid returning home to Italy at all costs, despite the abuses and the prejudices it suffers from.
Antonio sees in Leo the stubbornness of his beloved Mady, but he also feels that she is the girl he never had. A gentle relationship develops between them, based on mutual aid and understanding, and designed as a guarantee against the repetition of old mistakes. It is an exchange between two different generations and their conversations paint a simple and unpretentious portrait of the situation – and in particular the emotional situation – of immigrants living in foreign lands. Except that here, rather than non-Europeans arriving on boats, it is Italians from Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany, who left with their heads full of dreams but sometimes condemned to loneliness.
Io sto bene is co-produced by Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and Italy via Tarantula Luxembourg, Tarantula Belgium, MaxMa Movies and Vivo movie. International sales drop to MPM Premium.