Salty Air

Colour, 35 mm
Italy, 2006, 87 min
Section: Focus on New Italian Directors

Synopsis

One day young Fabio gets a huge shock. As a social worker employed by a prison, he sees his father’s name on a list of offenders which states that he had been put away for murder twenty years previously. Fabio prepares the prisoners before they go back into society and part of this preparation includes short spells outside the prison walls. Fabio makes himself known to his father, whom he had last seen when he was a very small child, and sets off with him on a little “excursion” into town. Their shared stroll through the streets becomes a journey back in time, a festering journey full of wrong turns and insurmountable obstacles. They have no understanding for each other, their time together is marred by harsh conflicts, angry separations and recriminations, and the chasm between them widens, leading to a tragic finale. Even so, the film’s message is not as hopeless as it seems; both of them managed to tell each other something about themselves, and Fabio will no longer remember his father with hatred in his heart.

About the director

Alessandro Angelini (b. 1971, Rome) worked as a photographer for various newspapers and press agencies. He then turned his attention to film, where he began as assistant and second unit director. Over the last ten years he was involved in the films of various important Italian directors (including Nanni Moretti, Mimmo Calopresti, Francesca Comencini and Sergio Rubini). From 1996 onwards, before debuting as a feature film director, he made four documentaries and one short.