Le città di pianura

There is a stretch of land running from Venice to Milan called the Pianura, which means “plain” in Italian: kilometres upon kilometres of industrial facilities and agricultural holdings punctuated by various cities, some more glorious than others. The beating heart of the Italian economy, this area has always been key to understanding the mood of the country, its political and social ethos, its contradictions and wounds. The spirit of this place is perfectly embodied by the carefree, perpetually stoned Carlobianch and the shy, contemplative, two fiftysomethings who set off on an unheroic quest with their new pal, an architecture student named Giulio. Francesco Sossai does wonders translating ephemeral sensations into images, carrying us from place to place and offering us faces of all kinds with intelligence and a lightness of touch, capturing the beauty of a place distorted by capitalism that has been kept alive by its people. But LE CITTÀ DI PIANURA is far from a sad tale lamenting the “end of an era”, and instead unfolds as a romantic, melancholy road movie in which the protagonists navigate a country drunk on the past and hungover in the present, a country that moves ever onward nonetheless. (Rebecca De Pas)

In the presence of Francesco Sossai.

Francesco Sossai: Filmografie SURFACES (2017, K), ALTRI CANNIBALI (2021), IL COMPLEANNO DI ENRICO (2023, K)