Once We Were Strangers
Una volta eravamo stranieri
by
MOVIE CATEGORY
The Sicilian guy Antonio lives illegally in New York, divided between multiple jobs, an unauthorized residence, bike rides and some acquaintances in the art dealing world. However, when he meets Ellen, who works in radio, his life as a foreigner on American soil starts to shake: will he be able to prevent the girl from leaving for Paris and stay with him?
Once We Were Strangers is Emanuele Crialese’s first work and immediately outlines one of the characteristic aspects of his cinema, that is, the relationship between the self and the world under the flag of strangeness. Vincenzo Amato’s Antonio is the filter through which we observe a peculiar, busy New York, peppered with the lively rhythm of Flavio Ibba’s music and enriched with curious and original characters, seen while they navigate liminal areas such as streets, parks, laundromats, bars, pool halls, looking for their place in the world. And the human portraits cannot but coincide, in the end, with portraits of the places of a unique city.
DIRECTORY
Italian director that has worked since the end of the Nineties, Emanuele Crialese was born in Rome to Sicilian parents in 1965, and studied Cinema first in Rome and then at New York University. His debut, Once We Were Strangers (1997), was set in New York, while his most successful films, Respiro (2002) and Nuovomondo (2006), returned to Sicilian lands. The latter was presented at the Venice Film Festival, awarded with the unprecedented Silver Lion for Revelation of the year, and nominated for the Oscars, the David di Donatello and the European Film Awards. Terraferma was awarded in Venice as well in 2011, and his last film, L’immensità (2022), was again selected at the Lido in the main competition.