MAMA MERCY

"At the end of Prenestina Street in Rome, where the road comes to an end, a massive mirrored building looms like a spaceship or a ghostly vessel. It’s an old hotel, long abandoned and occupied. Over the years, hundreds of families from every corner of the world have converged in that microcosm, bringing with them their expectations, pains, and children. That former hotel serves as the backdrop for a rich, tragic, and joyful intersection of destinies. Mama Mercy has too many children and a husband who helps little. Every day, she confuses her steps with the fearless and hurried strides of dozens of other occupying mothers - Ethiopian, Sudanese, Moroccan—struggling to provide a dignified future for their children. Mama Mercy’s dream would be to have an extra room, allowing her family to 'expand' beyond the few square meters assigned to them. The mirrored building is a city within the city, where solidarity, competition, hardships, and nobility intertwine."

“Maternity is the element that gives rise to action. The classic sacred iconography of the mother is overturned and reinterpreted in a contemporary, multicultural, vital, and marginal context. A new world emerges in history, consisting of women and children repopulating old abandoned buildings in Rome. Women coming from various southern regions of the world try to navigate complex existences, carrying with them the trauma of crossing the Mediterranean. New philosophies arise from attempts to find answers to the meaning of everyday occurrences. The past resurfaces in the present, and a kind of universal balance regulates good and evil. New laws govern relationships. Poverty and need lead to rule violations. Violations result in sanctions from the new administrators of the rule. Salvation comes from the unexpected involvement of a different type of marginal subjectivity. Sanctions lead to repentance and resolution.”

REGIA: Alessandra Cutolo. SCENEGGIATURA: Alessandra Cutolo, Karole di Tommaso. FOTOGRAFIA: Luca Bigazzi. MONTAGGIO: Alessandro Minestrini. MUSICA: Peppe D’Argenzio. SUONO: Luca Cafarelli. CAST: Confort Samuel, Nicola Sechi, Abay Girma, Fiori Temanu, Deborah Konan Offeh, Maurita Virtù. PRODUTTORE: Gianluca Arcopinto.