In 1960s Italy, there was a promise of a connected future. The state-of-the-art Salerno–Reggio Calabria highway was unveiled and touted as one of the most important Italian and European engineering works. The goal: to connect the economically struggling south of the country with the financially healthier and more advanced north.
However, as seems to be the case with many an infrastructure project, things didn’t quite play out as rosily as advertised. Far from it. The promises made were “as pompous as the scale of the project,” highlights a synopsis for Tirrenica, a documentary from director and director of photography Rosario Minervini, that dives into the stories of people living along the edges of the highway to “reveal Southern Italy beyond its stereotypes.”
World premiering in the Newcomers Documentary competition lineup of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece on Tuesday, March 10, Tirrenica‘s narrative travels between the present and the past. Among the people viewers meet is a man who, after losing his job after 12 years, becomes a shepherd and lives in a caravan without water and electricity. Among others, people salvaging and repairing discarded objects and practising target shooting also feature, as does Francesca, who fights for civil rights.
Press notes for the film describe them with such descriptions as The Revolutionary, The Hoarder, The Shepherd, and The Sharpshooter.
As it unfolds, the film explores how the huge highway project, which ended up taking more than 60 years to finish, became synonymous with the areas it connects, from the outskirts of Naples to Salerno, but “for all the wrong reasons,” as a synopsis highlights. It also exposes “the structural pathologies of the Italian state like no other, effectively confirming the narrative of a ‘country of two speeds.’ Through the striking comparison of yesterday’s expectations and the mundane reality of those who were born and raised in the shadow of a phantom project, Rosario Minervini performs a dissection of clinical precision of the delays that have weighed down Italy’s collective psyche over time.”
Or as Minervini, who serves as the artistic director of the documentary section at the Giffoni Film Festival. says in a director’s statement: “Tirrenica is an observational film that explores Southern Italy beyond its cultural clichés. Set along the Salerno–Reggio Calabria highway, the film unfolds as a visual and emotional journey through the lives of those who inhabit its margins. This iconic road becomes a connective thread, linking stories of solitude, survival and quiet resistance.”
THR can now exclusively reveal a trailer for Tirrenica. It may be in Italian, but it shows off the mix of current and archive footage, the colorful characters, and the music of the film. So, buckle up for a trip to Southern Italy and see a side of Italy that promises to be very different from what tourist guides tell and show you.
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