Synopsis
Portraying the last days in the life of philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), Ferraro not only deals with a historical and philosophically fascinating subject, but has also crafted a landscape film of immense beauty. Shot mostly in the South-Eastern Pyrenees in gorgeous black-and-white, where in 1939 the Catalan republicans were escaping to France, but a year later foreigners, Jews and anti-fascists were trying to escape in the opposite direction from ‘collaborationist’ France – among them Benjamin. The route is long and the advance is slow but the filmmaker (and agronomist) invites the viewer to a generous journey through Europe’s historical past, leading to our times where the roads are once again full of refugees.
Presented by the artistic team
Filmmaker
Fabrizio Ferraro
He is a director and screenwriter. He has developed a solid filmography as a documentary filmmaker, and he has also directed several fiction feature films. His work, risky and heterogeneous, has been selected in festivals such as Rotterdam, Berlin or Turin, where he obtained a Special Mention for Je suis Simone (La condition ouvrière), and has attracted praise from Italian specialized critics.
Filmography: La veduta luminosa (2021), Checkpoint Berlin (2020), Les Unwanted de Europa (2017, D'A 2018), Colossale Sentimento (2016), SebastianO (2016), Wenn aus dem Himmel (2015), Quatre nuits d’un étranger (2013), Penultimo paesaggio (2011), Piano sul pianeta (2010), Je suis Simone (La condition ouvrière) (2009)
