Down There: A Criminal Education
[La-Bas]
Q&A with Daniele Fulvi (seasonal lecturer in Ethics and Philosophy at Western Sydney University) + Ana Tiwary (Director/Producer indiVisual films).
Guido Lombardi’s refreshing look at the problems of immigration in Italy that not only thinks outside the box but is involved in the community it’s spotlighting.
Set in Castel Volturno, a coastal town 18 miles from Naples. Artist Yssouf (Kader Alassane) is fresh off the plane from Africa, in search of an uncle who promised him a job and good money. Instead Yssouf only finds impoverished Africans struggling to make a living and maintain a sense of community. When he does locate Uncle Moses (Moussa Mone), Yssouf discovers he’s a drug dealer profiting from an uneasy partnership with a branch of the Camorra. Tempted by the possibility of earning quick money, he joins his uncle’s biz and distances himself from the supportive, decent people he met when he first arrived.
Winner of a “Lion of the Future” award at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, the film is loosely based on a 2008 shooting between rival criminal gangs, in which six people were killed. It reveals the vulnerability of members of this community who risked their lives to get to Italy, only to be confronted with a lack of employment and marginalization as outsiders.
Wednesday 31st August
98 min
18+
Retrospective
