Moderated by Roberto Bombarda.
Kazakhstan today is experiencing a development euphoria that Italy can hardly remember. Yet its growth is closely linked to the Italian economy. ENI plays a key role in managing Kazakhstan's oil and gas reserves, and many Italians work in Kazakhstan, particularly in the regions around the Caspian Sea, where this film was shot. The images of the vast Eurasian steppes, the infinite and orderly spaces of the post-Soviet lands, intertwine with those of Italy in the 1960s, found both in ENI archives and in the personal archives of Segre's mother and father, who, as young adults in the 1960s, lived through the euphoria of growth. Traveling between Aktau and Astana, between the oil steppes near the Caspian Sea and the hyper-modernity of the new capital, the film pauses to listen to the lives and dreams of old farmers, shepherds, and young women whose lives are transformed by the impact of oil multinationals. Their stories resonate with those of Italian men and women who, fifty years ago, experienced similar emotions and hopes.
In collaborazione con MonturaEditing
