LA NAPOLI DI MIO PADRE
(The Naples of My Father)
20 minutes, 2020
Director : Alessia BOTTONE (Italy)
Production : Alessia BOTTONE (Italy)
In collaboration with Istituto Luce Cinecittà (Italy), AAMOD – Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico (Italy), K-Studio (Italy)
Giuseppe used to stare at the horizon as if there was something liberating about it. His daughter Alessia, the director of this film, would often see him staring out the window like that, wondering what could attract his attention so intensely.
Giuseppe’s story revolves around the themes of exile and fear of the unknown, which bind Italy’s 20th century migrants, cardboard suitcases in hand, to today’s migrants landing on the country’s southern coast. As the train devours the rails mile after mile, Alessia comes to understand what her father was thinking and seeing: his memories. The return to Naples becomes the opportunity to tell his life’s journey and thus discover her own origins. Because no matter how far we go, we always come back to where it all began.
Alessia BOTTONE is a director, screenwriter and journalist. She graduated in Institutions and Policies for Human Rights and Peace, and completed the Carlo Mazzacurati Master in Screenwriting at the University of Padua.
She wrote and directed a short film about the psychological violence suffered by women, “Violenza invisibile”, and two documentaries “Ritratti in controuce” and “Ieri come oggi”. In 2013 she published “Amore ai tempi dello stage” and in 2015 “Papà mi presti i soldi che devo lavorare?”. In 2017, she won several awards: the Claudia Basso Award for Journalism for the Pfas survey, the Alessandra Bisceglia Award for social communication and finally the Massimiliano Goattin Award for making a video survey about architectural barriers. In 2018, she was among the finalists for the Cesare Zavattini Award for a project using archival film creatively and the Luzzati Award for short films. “La Napoli di mio padre” is her first archival-based short film. It won a Special Mention at the Nastri d’Argento in 2021.