The film with which Bellocchio returns home is a film composed of six episodes shot in Bobbio between 1999 and 2008 with the students of “Fare cinema”, the summer workshop he has been holding for years in his hometown. The protagonist is a family, that of the director himself, composed of his daughter Elena, his son Giorgio and his two sisters, Letizia and Maria Luisa. A linear and concrete document of how good cinema springs from reality and is inspired by it to tell any story, from the largest to the most intimate and minute. “In reality,” the director declared, “it was about six independent episodes and I didn’t have in mind to make a feature film. Then I noticed that there was a common thread: the theme of who goes and who stays. The film is a product made with great freedom, there was no obsession with shooting a film tout court, with thinking about how it could be received by the public. We worked with great lightheartedness.” A heartfelt tribute to family relationships, which sometimes turn from a refuge into sweet prisons.
Born and raised in Bobbio, Marco Bellocchio attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome at a young age. His first film, I pugni in tasca (1965), is one of the most mature and bold debuts in the history of Italian cinema. After La Cina è vicina (1967), a slogan film about the Italian bourgeoisie, he directed, among others, Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (1972), a bitter reflection on journalism. One of the most politically committed directors, he denounced the abuses of institutions (Nel nome del padre, 1972, Matti da slegare, 1975, Marcia trionfale, 1976) alternating documentary with fiction cinema. With the psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, he directed Il diavolo in corpo (1986), inaugurating a prolonged cinematic journey along the routes of the unconscious. In 1997 he brought to the screen a text by Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg, which achieved great success among critics and audiences, confirming himself as a lucid, rigorous and passionate director. Having confirmed his success with a film adaptation of Pirandello's novel (La balia, 1999), he turned his attention to the dilemmas of the present and recent history (L’ora di religione, 2002, Buongiorno, notte, 2003, Il regista di matrimoni, 2006). The only Italian in competition, in 2009 he participated in the Cannes Film Festival with Vincere, obtaining great acclaim from international critics. At the last Venice Film Festival he presented Sorelle mai, a film in six episodes set in a family setting.