Country: Italy
Year: 2024
Duration: 73'
Claudio Ritossa is a palliative doctor who does his job with great empathy for his end-of-life patients. Besides his work at the Hospice Anemos in Turin, he dedicates a lot of his time to gardening, an activity that is an encapsulation of his profession. If in the space of just one year, plants and trees contain a cycle that is parallel to that of human beings, gardens can restore the naturalness of existence, made of life and death. Claudio deeply transmits this path to his patients, leading them along a journey that is as smooth and serene as possible, toward the “end of the game.”
Biography
film director
Mario Balsamo
(Italy) is an author, documentary filmmaker, and film professor. He taught documentary filmmaking at the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome and, at the same time, held lessons, master classes, laboratories, and seminars in specialized and compulsory schools, institutions, and associations in Italy and abroad. As an author and essayist, he wrote the historical novel I pirati della selva (2023), the novel La vita estranea (2022), the documentary filmmaking manual L’officina del reale (2009), and the travel journal with a literary flair Cannella e garofano, istantanee dallo Stato di Bahia e altre storie (2006). He has made numerous documentaries in collaboration with other filmmakers and creative documentaries that have participated at various festivals. These films include Noi non siamo come James Bond (2012) and Mia madre fa l’attrice (2016), both presented at the Torino Film Festival.
FILMOGRAFIA
Alvaro Siza, architetto (coregia Francesco Maselli, Gillo Pontecorvo, Francesca Comencini, Pasquale Scimeca, doc., 1999), Un mondo migliore è possibile (coregia AA.VV, doc., 2001), La zona rossa (cm, 2001), Porto Alegre (coregia AA.VV, doc., 2002), Il villaggio dei disobbedienti (doc., 2002), Sotto il cielo di Baghdad (coregia Stefano Scialotti, doc., 2003), Storie arbëreshë (doc., 2006), Sognavo nuvole colorate (doc., 2008), Anima selvaggia (doc., 2011), Noi non siamo come James Bond (2012), Mia madre fa l’attrice (2015), Effetti collaterali (cm, doc, 2020), Er disastro (cm, doc, 2022), In ultimo (doc, 2004).
Declaration
film director
“In In ultimo, I chose to recount death through life. Because, yes, hospices are places where the terminally ill are cared for but the world of hospices has many unexpected facets, much more, so many things that have a lot to do with existence. Because it is possible to represent death through life if (as can be perceived there) you are convinced that death is part of the cycle of existence; in fact, it is the only certain thing about it. Because, if you think about it, the end of the line might be the occasion to take stock of your own earthly experience: what have we done that we can be satisfied about? What do we leave behind for the people we care about of our actions, of our values, of our victories? Not even in the documentary do the people who work at the Hospice Anemos of Turin hide the conflicts and the difficulties of working in a delicate environment like this one, as they try to conduct the patients along pathways of awareness of the moment they are experiencing.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, STORY: Mario Balsamo. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sabina Bologna. EDITING: Gabriele Marroni. SOUND: Gabriele Marroni, Boris Riccardo D’Agostino. CAST: Claudio Ritossa. PRODUCER: Alessandro Borrelli. COPRODUCER: Eliane Ferreira. PRODUCTION: La Sarraz Pictures, Muiraquita Filmes.
CONTACT: La Sarraz lasarrazpictures@gmail.com
