Banned from television, Sabina Guzzanti, Italy’s answer to Michael Moore, delivers a spectacular indictment of the Berlusconi government’s self-serving response to the Aquila earthquake in April last year.
Why do Italians vote for Berlusconi? One only needs to scratch the surface to see scandals breaking out everywhere.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2010
Draquila - Italy Trembles 2010
Draquila – L’Italia che trema
This year’s Cannes Festival was officially boycotted by Italy for showing this spectacular indictment of the Berlusconi government’s self-serving response to the Aquila earthquake in April last year. Italy’s answer to Michael Moore, filmmaker Sabina Guzzanti has long since been banned from Italian TV, but Italians flock to her movies.
“Viva Sabina Guzzanti, who proves once again that satirists and (some) filmmakers are stepping up to fill the gaps left open by journalists in Italy, whose media is mostly in the hands of President Silvio Berlusconi… Guzzanti knows that a natural disaster is a photo-op godsend to politicians whose approval ratings are in freefall from corruption and sex scandals. So she probes deeper, narrowing in on the national Civil Protection Agency in charge of resolving the problems in Aquila… The editing, music and lively animated inserts add cohesion to this alarming story, and Guzzanti gives ample screen time to those who still see Berlusconi as a miracle worker and paternal savior.” — Natasha Senjanovic, Hollywood Reporter
“With a deft command of a complex structure, Sabina Guzzanti unpicks a multi-leveled, jaw-dropping scandal... No matter how shady you think Italian politics are, the film reveals them to be even worse.” — Nick James, Sight & Sound