Futura

A tryptic of films from three of Italy's most exciting filmmakers that forms a compelling portrait of Italian youths

Film Review by Patrick Gamble | 04 Jul 2022
  • Futura
Film title: Futura
Director: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher
Release date: 8 Jul
Certificate: 12A

Influenced by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Love Meetings, in which the Italian director took to the streets to ask people about their attitudes toward sex, Futura sees Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi and Alice Rohrwacher collaborate on their own state-of-the-nation travelogue.

From culinary students in Milan and trainee beauticians in Napoli to aspiring boxers from Calabria, the trio travelled across the country, asking a cross-section of young people about their hopes and fears for the future. Where Pasolini was met with prejudice and bigotry, the trio encountered a generation worried about inequality, climate change and the rise of nationalism. The project began at the start of 2020, and at the midpoint of the film the faces of these youngsters suddenly become half obscured by masks due to the outbreak of COVID-19. During the pandemic many teenagers expressed their anxieties about the future and here it’s no different, but throughout the film the trio are keen to point out that the pandemic did not create these problems; it simply made them impossible to ignore.

These interviews are interspersed with archive footage of similar investigations undertaken in the 1960s by Mario Soldati and Gianfranco Mingozzi, as well as footage from the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, where police violently attacked thousands of peaceful anti-globalisation protesters. This historical context helps draw out the film’s message about the importance of collectivism as well as suggesting how these interviews might be viewed in years to come, with Futura ultimately an important time capsule for a generation born into an era of global uncertainty.


Released 8 Jul by Modern Films; certificate 12A