Country: Italy
Year: 1999
Duration: 39'
Immigrants and refugees from the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa land on the coast of Apulia in order to escape from war, political persecution, and hunger. Thousands of people are hosted in the Regina Pacis Immigrant Reception Center in San Foca in the province of Lecce. They stay for a period of from 10 to 40 days until they are authorized to stay in Italy or to continue their trips toward Northern Europe. As they wait day after day, their thoughts, memories, and hopes run through their minds and are woven in with their different stories and languages.
"«Where we go» pronounced in broken English has become an essential question that is always asked, but is often not answered. Regina Pacis is a place where people with deeply different cultures and experiences concentrate. However, these people are all the same in their need to respond to the same questions and needs. Every day I saw people facing the balcony on the waterfront anxiously waiting for the list of the people who were to be allowed to leave for Rome. Many of them were expelled and deported. If so, they had gotten to know only one place on the border were they had dreamed of being free" (Paolo Pisanelli).
Biography
film director
Paolo Pisanelli
Paolo Pisanelli (Lecce, 1965), a university architecture graduate (1993), earned a degree at the Experimental Film Center specializing in the photography program under Giuseppe Rotunno. He subsequently worked as photo reporter and as still set photographer for various theater and dance companies. Since 1995 he has concentrated on directing documentary films, which have been presented in various national and international festivals and have received numerous awards and great recognition. In 1998 he was one of the founding members of Big Sur, an independent cooperative for film production and communications workshop.
FILMOGRAFIA
In silenzio (1993), Nella prospettiva della chiusura lampo (1994), 10 calcoli infiniti (1998), Il magnifico sette (1998), N (1999), Where We Go (1999/2000), Roma A.D. 999 (2000), Roma A.D. 000 (2001).
Cast
& Credits
Regia, soggetto, fotografia: Paolo Pisanelli.
Editor: Stefano Pasetto.
Montaggio del suono: Gianluca Costamagna.
Cast: Ismail Akbulut "mehmet", Rashed Ahmed, Ali Imran, Lakhdar Lekbir, Salomon Berisma, Agim Di Brani, Mirsej Alzovic.
Production company and Italian distribution: Big Sur, via Coppola 3, 73100 Lecce, Italia, tel. e fax +39-0832-346903, bigsur@libero.it.
Co-production: Indigo Film.
Editor: Stefano Pasetto.
Montaggio del suono: Gianluca Costamagna.
Cast: Ismail Akbulut "mehmet", Rashed Ahmed, Ali Imran, Lakhdar Lekbir, Salomon Berisma, Agim Di Brani, Mirsej Alzovic.
Production company and Italian distribution: Big Sur, via Coppola 3, 73100 Lecce, Italia, tel. e fax +39-0832-346903, bigsur@libero.it.
Co-production: Indigo Film.