RIFF Day 7 – Housing by Federica Di Giacomo

I hate the terrible feeling of déjà vu I get when I watch Italian documentaries. I hate it not because of the feeling itself, but for the memories it brings back. With memories, rage and disdain are also bound to emerge. I know what I am going to see and I don’t want to see it; but for the precise reason I know, I want to see: I am terribly attracted to documentaries about Italy and at the same time the very idea of watching them originates a deep repulsion in me.

Today I included in my festival screening routine the documentary Housing, by Federica Di Giacomo. I had discarded Di Giacomo’s feature at first because I knew how I would feel after watching it. But I had to include it again in my RIFF “to watch” list for the same reason. It’s complicated to explain, but that’s exactly how it went.

Housing deals with the issue of assignment of Council homes in Italy. In the specific case, the film focuses on the issue of the assignment of Council homes in Bari, Southern part of Italy. But Bari is just a single example of a problematic situation that can be detected in many other cities and also in Rome, the capital of the country.

Council homes’ assignment works in the weirdest ways in my home country. Most of the times if you are lucky you have to wait years to get a flat assigned to you and your family. Doesn’t matter how bad your financial or familiar situation is. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re totally penniless, you have five children and your mother who lives with you is blind and unable to take care of herself. Sometimes other matters get in the way: corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency are some of the reasons that can lead to the hideous situation as the one depicted in the film. For over twenty years no Council homes have been assigned in Bari, the opening sentence says. What have the authorities been doing for over twenty years? Fattening their pockets in crazy speculations, very likely. Who cares? It’s common people that pay the consequences and that are going to be at each others’ throats, anyway. But common people in Italy are not so defenseless sometimes. They know their business very well. And their business is to take advantage even of the most disgusting situations. Italians have refined an art over time, whereas in other countries the population would have gone to confront their authorities with pickets. Alas.

The stories in Housing are just average stories for Italian standards. The widower unable to take care of himself and looking for a woman to do all the hard work; the obese orphan bachelor delaying his responsibilities forever with the excuse of guarding the house; the old lady presenting her endless pleadings to local authorities, hoping to awaken some sort of pity in them; the idle lady living with a dummy, spending all day on her balcony, chatting with other ladies like her. All these people are excusing themselves, their lack of aptitude and of social responsibility with the justification of the house. Everybody could see their situation is not acceptable in a civilized country; the most these people seem to be doing is accepting everything and benefiting from it, in a way or in another. They do not have to do any serious work, they do not have to take any decision, they do not have to move a finger. All they do is complaining, which is another thing Italians do better. I find this attitude horrible and unforgivable. And what about the authorities? They are, of course, non-existent.

I’m used to watch documentaries about people living in difficult situations. Most documentaries are about themes like this. What enraged me about Di Giacomo’s documentary was the fact Italians are as usual making fools of themselves in the eyes of the world without flinching. It all looked so familiar to me that I wanted to throw up. I found out I was grinning all through the screening. Most Icelanders present at the Art Museum left before the end of the film. Out of boredom or disgust? I wonder.

Screenshots courtesy of B&B Film.

Title: Housing
Year: 2010
Director: Federica Di Giacomo
Genre: Documentary
Country: Italy
Runtime: 90 minutes
Language: Italian