Italian Doc Season – Bertha DocHouse Review

In an abandoned kindergarten in the middle of a small Sicilian neighbourhood, rogue children are making a home for themselves. In their actual homes, they face the aching absence of imprisoned fathers, desperate mothers, poverty and violence in the streets. In their castle however, they can look out for each other and keep all the danger that surrounds them far away.

Only seventy minutes long, The Castle – co-directed by Danny Biancordi, Stefano La Rosa and Virginia Rossi – is brief, but hugely poignant. Almost all of the film is spent hanging out with the central kids, watching as they try and tidy up their hideout from the world, compare notes about their difficult home lives, and imagine what the future will be like for them. They know they’re on the precipice of a tough, scary life, and are eager to cling on to their childhood for as long as they can. Through their various conversations, they seem alternately wise, naive, fragile, funny and indomitable, as they contemplate what’s coming next.

The subjects of GEN_ are a little older – specifically the main one, Dr Maurizio Bini, who is on the verge of retirement. He runs an Italian clinic that offers both IVF treatment and gender-affirming care. Against the backdrop of a rabidly right-wing government, Dr Bini gives medical support and practical advice to people during the most vulnerable times of their lives. In Gianluca Matarrese’s intimate documentary, we sit in on a string of these consultations.

GEN_ does a lot of things very well, but perhaps the most important is to depoliticise matters that have been politicised to death. Via an opening audio montage, and a scattering of references to the imminent law changes by Giorgia Meloni’s government, the film acknowledges the noxious climate of the times. Where its heart is at though, is with the people who visit Dr. Bini’s office, making tough, brave decisions as to how they can live the lives they long for in a world that seems so inhospitable to them.

In Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries, the epic 3-hour 26-minute film from Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, the scope is far beyond humanity; as broad as the earth itself.

Via archival footage of people interacting with animals in the early 1900s, explorations of the oldest botanical garden in Italy, timelapse photography of plant movement, the processes of memorial marker making, and a whole lot more, the documentary explores how much damage people have done to the planet, despite being such a tiny part of it.

Thanks to its lengthy duration, languorous pace and the many historical depictions of animal cruelty in the first section, Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries is not an easy watch. Nevertheless, it is a thought-provoking one, that will leave you humbled as to our place in the world amidst the many awe-inspiring plants and creatures that we share it with.

The Castle, GEN_, and Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries are showing at Bertha DocHouse, Curzon Bloomsbury on the 5 and 6 of July, as part of Italian Doc Season. Tickets are available here.