11.04.22
Events
Notturno (2020) / Country: Italy, Germany, France / Director: Gianfranco Rosi / Length: 100 min / Language: Arabic, Kurdish / Subtitles: Albanian, English / Entrance: FREE
This film is screened as a collaboration between Kino ARMATA and DokuFest.
A group of female soldiers is shown standing guard, clearing empty buildings and relaxing in their barracks. A man in a small boat hunts for water fowl at night with the sound of machine gun fire in the distance. At a psychiatric hospital, a group of patients are given scripts to memorize for a play about the current state of their homeland and are shown rehearsing their parts. At a school, as a form of therapy, children draw graphic pictures of the war atrocities they witnessed and describe their experiences to their teacher.
Shot over the course of three years between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Lebanon, Notturno follows different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives. The films conveys the Middle East as it emerges from Isis terror, but remaining scarred by the intervention of western powers who had promised so much.
Italian-American film-maker Gianfranco Rosi’s method of patient observation allows him to make poetic connections across borders; a military drill that takes place at dawn is juxtaposed with a group of grieving mothers who wander an empty prison in an orderly procession.
The film shows poetically what all people who live in war zones have in common: the loneliness, the alienation, the survivor-trauma. The film’s most powerful scenes are those that show a therapist working with children who have witnessed or experienced torture at the hands of Isis: they show this in their drawings.
Notturno had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 8 September 2020. It was selected as the Italian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.
Gianfranco Rosi is an Italian-American documentary filmmaker. His 2013 film Sacro GRA won the Golden Lion at the 70th Venice Film Festival, while his 2016 film Fire at Sea won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin Film Festival.