The critical gaze of Vittorio De Agrò from the Zoo Palast

(from Berlin Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Maria Vittoria Battaglia and Vittorio De Agrò of the editorial staff Ground floor– The photos are published courtesy of the #BERLINALE)

#FORUM, #GENERATION14Plus from the court: in the first case a story, a ballad, a song of hope that warms the viewer's heart, In the second not successful the spotlight is turned on the hypocrisy and jealousy that smolders among the ranks of the "radical chic", and finally resentment as the title of the short says.

#Reas is a documentary directed by Lola Arias presented in the section #Forum

Synopsis: Yoseli has a tattoo of the Eiffel Tower on her back and has always wanted to travel, but she was arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Nacho is a trans man who was arrested for fraud and started a rock band in prison. Gentile o rude, blonde or shaved, cis o trans, long-term prisoner or newly admitted: in this hybrid musical, everyone recalls their life in a prison in Buenos Aires.

#Reas at Lola Arias | with Yoseli Arias, Ignacio Amador Rodriguez – Argentina / Germany / Switzerland 2024 | WP | DOC

Review:

Overcrowding in prisons , the living conditions of prisoners are taboo subjects , to which concrete answers are avoided.

Everyone formally would like to change the prison system, but no one takes concrete action, causing the situation to deteriorate further and further.

No country is exempt from this type of problem, but the problems of the prisoners are not newsworthy.

Detention should have a dual function: punitive and then re-educational. The second, the most important, it is almost always ignored.

“Reas” by Lola Arias presented as a world premiere in the Forum section of the Berlinale 2024, takes the viewer inside the reality of Argentine prisons , especially the women's section.

Today's Argentina is seething with anger and social tensions due to the very serious economic crisis into which it has fallen.

If the last of the class are forgotten, imagine the condition of prisoners in a prison.

“Reas” included as a documentary, it is actually something different and original in the staging.

Lola Arias mixes genres giving life to an atypical musical in which fiction and memories alternate in a creative and harmonious way.

“Reas” tells us about the lives of different women, but united by the fact of having to serve a sentence, consequence of a life far from their respective dreams and ambitions.

In Reas's imaginary female wing there are prostitutes, trans, girls, family mothers, lesbians deprived of their freedom.

These souls wounded and disappointed by life have understood that only by becoming a "family" can they overcome depression and loneliness behind "bars".

These “women” reinvent themselves as dancers, singers, musicians giving voice through art to the pain and injustices suffered during their lives.

“Reas” does not want to be another banal , predictable civil complaint documentary, but rather it has the ambition to tell, stage with the musical, the most important and decisive moments of the protagonists , without ever falling into rhetorical do-goodism.

Prison turns into an opportunity to create a family, a sisterhood and above all mutual support, never had before.

With “Reas” yes balla, sing, we are moved and finally empathize with this small community of women who dream of another life , once the sentence has been served.

In conclusion “Reas” is a bittersweet fresco on the most unfortunate and marginalized women, but determined to redeem themselves from their mistakes.

#WhoByFire is a film written and directed by Philippe Lesage presented in the section #Generation

Synopsis: Jeff is invited by his friend Max to travel deep into the woods and stay with them at acclaimed director Blake Cadieux's isolated retreat. Jeff has high expectations for the trip: but this trip will be memorable for other reasons.

Like fire (Who by Fire) by Philippe Lesage | con Noah Parker, Aurélia Arandi-Longpré, Antoine Marchand-Gagnon, Arieh Worthalter, Paul Ahmarani – Canada / France 2024 | WP

Review:.

Cinema is the field of subjectivity, a film can divide, to discuss.

No one, much less a critic, can have the presumption of judging the value of a film in an absolute manner.

Imagine if the undersigned could have this ambition, if anything it is necessary to explain one's dissent and negative perplexity.

Not knowing the director Philippe Lesage artistically ,I got closer to watching "Who by Fire", premiered at the Berlinale 2024 in the Generation section , quickly reading the presentation synopsis.

But after 2 h e 45 minute film, my first and spontaneous reaction was silence.

A silence full of perplexity about the choice made by the selectors of the section. Why ever include “Who by Fire”, I asked myself.

Having noted a chaotic script, verbose, slow and devoid of pathos and above all guiltily absent in justifying the narrative and directorial urgency of telling this story.

But the festival experience taught me that there are different perspectives in seeing and judging a film.

“Who by Fire” should have been the story of a holiday spent by a group of friends in an exclusive and solitary cabin.

A vacation seen from Jeff's perspective, a seventeen year old like there are many: still immature on a sentimental level, clumsy, insecure, shy.

Jeff is convinced that he will have memorable and intense days. But in reality it will be anything but a relaxing and pleasant friendly meeting between adults.

“Who by Fire” turns the spotlight on the hypocrisy and jealousy that smolders among the ranks of the “radical chic”.

Jeff and the other boys witness the most vulgar discussions resulting from ancient grudges and frustrations that have never been resolved. Every convivial moment turns into a verbal arena of mutual spite and insinuations, highlighting human littleness and the immaturity of adults.

The same adults after insulting each other, almost bordering on physical confrontation, they find themselves calmly drinking and dancing as if nothing had happened.

Philippe Lesage uses a narrative scheme that is too dispersive and slow in carrying out his criticism of a self-referential generation that pays little attention to the growth of its children and above all incapable of understanding their existential and emotional difficulties.

“Who by Fire” alternates long silences, pauses in which the natural element , the charm of the woods become protagonists, to other moments of noise, verbal tension, anger and joy which in the long run are annoying as well as boring for the spectator.

The entire artistic cast appears "loaded" and not credible as if they had been taught by Gabriele Muccino instead of Lesage.

In conclusion, “who by Fire” appears to us to be a missed opportunity, forced and above all self-referential by the director, betraying the opportunity of a universal story.

#FACE by Gleb Osatinski was featured in the section #Generation14plusCorti

Synopsis: Like any teenager, Seventeen-year-old Yasha rebels against authority, but in 1990s Soviet Ukraine some opposing forces are more dangerous than others. When Yasha reaches his breaking point, raw impulses push him to the brink of irreparable damage.

#FACE (Resentment) di Gleb Osatinsky – USA, Lithuania 2024

Review:

Adolescence is a complicated age, unpredictable, tiring, angry.

Each of us has experienced it and could add a word accordingly, an adjective to define this crucial moment in the growth of every individual

Any teenager feels the "physiological" need to rebel against authority, to refuse to respect the rules of society.

Frailties are not allowed in the world of adolescence. Restlessness and fears must be hidden behind a rebel mask.

But a boy without solid family guidance, he remains a lonely boy and prey to his own instincts.

Many famous and talented filmmakers have attempted to do this and few have succeeded.

Gleb Osatinski succeeded, with his medium-length film “Risentimento” presented as a world premiere in the “Generation 14” section of the Berlinale, to give a convincing portrait of this very particular age with the added difficulty of living it in Ukraine, which is still under Soviet influence.

Yasha ben interpretato da Vlad Baluik, is a seventeen-year-old Ukrainian of Jewish origin who dreams of playing with his band in the schoolyard.

Yasha's artistic ambitions are brutally snuffed out by the school principal, justifying your decision with a bureaucratic excuse.

Yasha feels discriminated against at school because he is Jewish as well as mortified by the narrow economic conditions of his family.

Yasha is like a pressure cooker ready to explode. The viewer observes how negative feelings such as anger and frustration are "polluting" the heart of the young protagonist.

The dramatic spark or, if you prefer, the last straw that will break Yasha's back, will happen paradoxically when his father, for once present and close, he will defend it , being in turn brutally attacked by a drunken neighbor.

Yasha will react instinctively to this latest humiliation, not reflecting on the consequences of one's act of retaliation.

“Resentment” is a warning, an advice, an invitation to the latest generations to avoid Yasha's mistakes, not to feel alone and above all not to experience perhaps the most beautiful age of life with anger and frustration.

Resentment leads nowhere and if anything condemns you to a life of remorse and guilt.

Vittorio De Agrò (RS) of the RdC editorial team