For the first film from the MADE IN ITALY festival comes CALIFORNIE from directors Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman. Jamila (Khadija Jaafari) and her family have moved to Italy and like millions of others immigrants, she feels adrift. Her life starts with school in Naples but without a centre, she finds herself lost. Over the next five years, her life, dreams and desperation vote to the surface. From working at 13, driving a bike, boys in the local community, going home or staying elsewhere. For a young woman from Morocco, small town near Naples is a world like no other.
The changing space of Europe and her people has been handled before in many different films. The progress and pitfalls that see hundreds of thousands travel to those shores, in hope of a better life, can be uplifting. It also can be brutally uncompromising, distressing or a bunch of multiple guises. Progressing this narrative is hard. Then along came CALIFORNIE from Italy, suggesting it might refresh the well travelled route. But does it leave us progressed? In a word. No. Cinema of truth it certainly is. Cinema of the veritie, European art house circuit, it is definitely. Then at the end of the branch comes the split. Revealing what it lacks. That is something ultimately real. At first, for me it was lacking so much I was oak. For it feels like it wants to avoid something. Anything, confrontational. Don’t say it, don’t say something that might upset the balance. It is though, a well defined take on that classic story of people doing what real people do. Well real teenagers, stuck in a world they can’t understand or won’t feel they fit into. That is where the film comes together.
‘californie’ will screen as part of the Made in Italy festival at Cine Lumiere season 2022.
CINEMA MADE IN ITALY returns to its home at the Ciné Lumière, South Kensington in March this year, showcasing some of the best Italian productions to the capital. Last year the festival was hosted by streaming platform MUBI due to the closure of cinemas in the pandemic but is back stronger than ever. From 3 – 7 March London audiences will once again be able to sample a rich and diverse programme which promises to delight and engage viewers and offers a taste of modern Italy and beyond as shared experience. The true expert of Italian cinema, Adrian Wootton OBE, is back at the helm hosting filmmakers from across the water to take part in filmmaker Q&A sessions, offering audiences the chance to become involved in lively and thought-provoking discussions.
