Passato presente, angeli laici cadono

A film about various forms of migration: those of place, time, body and identity. An urgent, topical film that talks about present and past, work, society, relationships and family ties. The maker has mixed contemporary images with fragments from a previous film, closely examining his marriage, children, friends and journeys. This film strives to bridge the gap between past and present, between North and South. In the present, the Nigerian woman Giulia talks about her unpleasant experiences as a black woman in Italy, former employees of the Fiat factory talk about work and unemployment, and artists and musicians are interviewed. Could all the stories from the present and the past combine to form one story, that of our present? De Bernardi: ‘I breathed new life into my underground film Il rapporto coniugal parentale (1971-1975) by allowing it to communicate with my cinema of the present, in other words: passato-presente (past-present), a nonexistent verbal tense. Passato presente/Angeli laici cadono (‘lay angels fall’) is an attempt to make first-person cinema, an attempt to film the impossible. As a director, I may not have any past, maybe I am only perfect present. The time of life can be conjugated endlessly, as far as you desire. I go from one zone to the other, I want to be the connection between both of them, but I am not.’ (EH)