32 TORINO FILM FESTIVAL: best italian documentary price

32 TORINO FILM FESTIVAL: best italian documentary price
Title: RADA
Country: ITALY
Year: 2014
Original language: ITALIAN
Length: 70’
Colour: Black & White
original medium: HD
SYNOPSIS
In the Camogli seafarer's retirement home, a crew of retired sailors await the time of
the final disembarkation. In this limbo-like phase, a submariner plays for the lottery,
dreaming of journey on a cruiser so that he can dance a tango with a beautiful woman,
an old diver roams the corridors reciting his poems out loud, a banana ship machinist
fights against the chilly air from the air conditioning, a commander of merchant ships
searches the stars for the route of his ship, and a nostalgic boatswain tails the ships on
the horizon with his binoculars. All of this while the ship sits still and anchored,
immobile, in the roadstead.
THE PROJECT
In sailor’s jargon ‘in the roadstead’ is the phase where the ships remain anchored and
waiting to be let into the harbour. During this state of immobility, which can even last
days, the crew carry out maintenance and repairs, they rest and wait, just a few
hundred metres from the shore, for the time when they can land.
Jutting out over the sea, and facing Paradiso bay in Camogli like a ship in the roadstead,
stands an imposing run-down building: the retirement home for seafarers “G. Bettolo”,
a historical institution of the Italian merchant navy, now owned and managed by the
INPS. Here live eighteen retired sailors . In “Rada”, the crew, made up of ex-sailors,
cooks, nurses, gardeners, and porters, rehearse in their cabins, in the corridor, on the
funnel deck, in the dining room, in the ballroom, in the lifts, and in the gardens.
Between the preparation of one scene and another, when the boredom and stillness
start to weigh down, out come confessions, dialogues, and memories from the past.
Renzo was once a submariner during the Second World War. He is 96 and dreams of
winning the lottery so that he can dance the tango on a cruiser as he used to with his
wife when she was alive. He is helped with this deed by his friend Paolo, a faithful
companion of games and pranks.
Primo is the poet of the house. He spent his life as a nurse on cruisers.
Laughed at and mocked by all when he recites his poems in the corridors, with his old
friend Giacomo’s complicity he decides to take revenge on these “savage and ignorant”
people who live in the house with him.
One morning Agostino is forced to move to a new cabin. Here the air conditioning is too
strong for him, as he is used to the sailing in the scorching African heat, aboard banana
ships. He becomes convinced that they wish to eliminate him so that they can free up a
bed in the home.
He writes a letter to the director. He goes to the doctor. He reports the matter to the
police. However nobody takes any action. In the end Agostino decides to take justice
into his own hands.
Sandro is the only commander in the house. Everyone shows him respect and
deference. So as not to give in to old age, he studies, plans, and invents. His cabin
becomes a sophisticated theoretical and practical laboratory for navigation, turning
Alessandro into a physics engineering, astronomy, and naval teacher. His ever-present
companion is his professional telescope, which he uses in the evenings to glare at the
skies, in search of new worlds.
Giorgio ran away from the countryside in Padova when he was fifteen so that he could
follow the dream of the sea. He curses his family because they refused to sign for him
to access the military academy. With him we get a taste of the heroic life of the sailor
amid pirate attacks, sea storms, long crossings, prostitutes, and drunken nights in pubs.
He uses his binoculars to watch ships docking in the Genoa harbour, he climbs up to the
funnel decks to feed the seagulls, he takes care of the maintenance of the home.
He still calls his room a ‘cabin’, the terrace is the funnel deck, the warehouses are the
holds. At dusk and dawn he drops and hauls the flags. He is often drunk and dreams of
setting off on a new adventure.
All this while the ship is still immobile and anchored, in the roadstead.
DIRECTOR INTENTIONS
“Rada” is about the seafarer’s retirement home in Camogli, an apparently idyllic but
which in truth hides within itself the abandoned lives of many survivors of the sea.
The building, a decaying building looming over the sea, reminds one of a motionless
ship in the roadstead. The pensioners spend their days in total passiveness, they have
very few contacts with the ground and drag on their existence waiting for lunch time
and sleep to come. Yet their sunken weatherbeaten faces still hide a glimmer of a
heroic, youthful, adventurous past. The idea for the project comes precisely from the
contrast between the legendary figure of the sailor with his cap and striped t-shirt, and
the as yet unseen melancholy version, trapped in a retirement home. The sea bears
evocation that are contrary to those of the land, which, for those who inhabit the sea, is
a synonym of stillness and rest. Finally, there is the roadstead, the middle moment,
where the ship is anchored, sometimes for days, but must await permission to enter
the harbour. During this phase the crew kill time amid maintenance, moments of
indolence, stories about the perils of the sea, nostalgic moments, worries, and desires.
So I make a proposition to the sailors: something that will occupy some of their vastly
available time: to create a film, imagining that the retirement home is a ship in the
roadstead and that they, together with us, the film troupe, are the crew. We write a
script together aimed at bringing back to life their past of glory through the loneliness
and apathy of their present lives. Now that they are old, the sailors find themselves
once again on a ship. As they await to land one final time, they have fun acting out their
true characters and how they live. They laugh about their condition, drink, and talk
about women, they know their death is not far away. Thus they unveil their intimacy so
filled with fears, senile dreams, and rocambolesque adventures.
“Rada” is not a documentary nor a fictional film. I like to define it as an experiment in
shared cinema. It’s deepest meaning is harboured in a phrase spoken by Renzo, an exsubmariner, before he died: “With this film you have cured me. Thank You.” Then he
died.
FILMOGRAPHY
Born in Brescia in 1980, Alessandro Abba Legnazzi received his degree in modern
literature at the State University of Milan. Since 2008 he has worked in primary schools
and youth centres, coordinating cinema workshops and producing short films. In 2012
he fulfilled his first documentary “Io ci sono” (I am here): it tells of pupils and teachers
of a primary school in Brescia, presented at the International Festival, the Milan
Filmmakerfest (2012) and at the Cracow film market (2013). Since 2013 he has been
producing the documentary “Storie di uomini e lupi” (Stories of men and wolves) which
is co-directed with Andrea Deaglio.
In 2014 he finishes his work on “Rada”(Roadstead), a film which portrays the life of
several retired sailors and is set in the Camogli retirement home for seafarers.
CAST&CREDITS
Cast:
RENZO CAVATORTA, GIORGIO SARTORELLO, PAOLO MONDELLO, GIACOMO GAGGERO,
ALESSANDRO BAGIOLI, PRIMO CONOSCENTI, SILVIA LORENZO, ELEONORA
DEBENEDETTI
Directed by ALESSANDRO ABBA LEGNAZZI
Script: ALESSANDRO ABBA LEGNAZZI
Photography: MATTEO TORTONE
Video Editing: ENRICO GIOVANNONE
Sound: ALESSANDRO BALTERA
Animations: FELIPE AGUILLA
Audio Post production: MY BOSS WAS
Colour correction: FRANCESCA CIRILLI
Subtitles: OLIVER D’ADDA
Press Office: LETIZIA TORTELLO
Production: OFFICINA KOINE' - BABYDOC FILM
With the support of the GENOVA LIGURIA FILM COMMISSION
Producers:
ENRICO GIOVANNONE (BABYDOC FILM)
FABIO FERRERO (OFFICINA KOINE')
ALESSANDRO ABBA LEGNAZZI
CONTACTS
Alessandro Abba Legnazzi
+39 347 44 92 672
[email protected]
BabyDoc Film
Enrico Giovannone
+39 329 20 11 819
[email protected] / www.babydocfilm.it
Officina Koiné
Fabio Ferrero
+39 328 67 48 151
[email protected] / www.officinakoine.org
Press management
Letizia Tortello
+ 39 329 24 72 590
[email protected]
Renzo Cavatorta
Paolo Mondello
Primo Conoscenti
Giacomo Gaggero
Sandro Baggioli
Giorgio Sartorello
Agostino Amoretti
Alessando Abba Legnazzi