All language subtitles for 1975 - Fit to be untied (sub eng)

"Fit to be untied"

a movie by

music by

The characters in this film really exist
and every reference to them
is therefore real.

The movie features documentary material
made for the district of Parma
called "None or All"

All or nothing, none or all
On your own you have no chance

Guns or chains the choice
All or nothing, none or all

In Italy, despite scandals and complaints,

private institutions for youths
called subnormal continue to exist.

Behind those walls,
not only cruelty and sadism is happening.

Here thousands of youths work and produce

for shady owners,
who make immeasurable profits.

Without help, without salary,
without unions, without the right to strike,

these handicapped youngsters are actually
the most exploited workers on earth.

From the orphanage to the asylum,
the destiny of these outcasts is doomed.

It's clear that the intellectual level
of some of them will never permit them

to read or write.

Pedagogist

Yet it's not important for them
to learn to write or read.

It's important for them to live,
to move, to know things.

In my opinion there is no limit...

We are always surprised.
When we let them outside

they act differently,
in a way we would never imagine...

obtaining such positive elements
we would never expect them to get.

We work on the integration
of these youngsters.

We can do it and we will be able
to do it into society,

but it doesn't mean
we create happy people.

There'll be some "Others",
misfits in a misfits' society.

Other abnormals in an abnormals' society.

I would say
"That guy has been at Villa Giardini!"

I could see on his forehead a label,

not visible in the mirror
but there was one...

that's how one knows it...

...either you should send me home
because they sent me here to be cured

You want to go home so...

Yet...

In this way,
91 asylums prospered in our country,

in which 170,000 inmates
were hospitalized annually.

Parma, left wing administration...

From 1968 till now, the new psychiatric
policy commissioned from the Region

agreed the progressive discharge
of 50% of the patients

from Colorno's psychiatric hospital.

People discharged can benefit from
several services offered by their district.

Two sheltered workshops,
an old people's home,

three farms, two community centres,
five mental health centres

and a hundred apartments.

Yet most important

is that the battle against asylums
and exclusion permeates into the city

and the struggle occurs exactly where
mental illness arises and develops:

among the poorest classes,

in the suburbs and particularly
in depressed areas of the mountains.

What does your family consist of?

What do you mean? Explain it.

How many and who we are?

There are four of us.

Me, Paolo...

my sister Mariangela,

Luciano,

and Zavaroni Gabriella, who is my mother.

Don't you know your father?

I don't know my father,
never seen him.

You don't know him...

Do you know his name?
- Yes, Notari Egisto.

What's his job?

I think he sells chestnuts or lemons,
I don't know... usually...

Do you visit him sometimes?

No.

Is there somebody you're more attached to,
among social workers and nurses?

In the district? Mario Tommasini.

Councillor.
But from Montagnano, nobody.

Why not?

All unpleasant.

What about Angela?

Unpleasant.

You threw some knives at her...

What do you need to be happy?

They need to leave me alone.

Paolo has got
an extraordinary independence,

he's been able to survive in
all kind of situations he finds himself.

Problems will come maybe later
when he'll be 17 or 20 years old.

Right now the problem is
to let Paolo live a less bad life.

He has this mother who declares
the greatest affection for him,

but then disappears from home for
24 hours without even preparing meals...

No, he was in the Montagnano Institution for
a few months, but then came out saying

there they aren't normal while
he is normal, so he decided to leave.

He was right.

Doesn't he listen to you?

No, not too much.

He makes me run, I'm in a mess here.

Paolo, get away from the bed!

Don't show yourself too much
because I don't want it.

What else can you tell us?

Stop it!
Not much, I told you.

Look, Paolo,
how you're making it all dirty!

I don't think
the Institution is a solution.

Paolo! Go away!
Look how dirty the sheets are!

Stop it!

Come on! Later I need to go to work!

Stop it! Look at yourself. Calm down.

Take a close up of us!

Yes, OK.

Close up of stupidity.

A good close up. A nice smile!

If he would freak out...

He's very smart.

Come on, Paolo, stop it, please!

What a nice position...

like salami.

Paolo, stop it!

He's like this because of strangers.

Stop it, Paolo! It's all dirty. I must go
to work and the sheets need cleaning.

Look, stupid! Go away!
You're even hurting yourself!

Think you're clever,
look at the sheets!

Now stop it.
I need to go to work!

Paolo stop, it. You're hurting him,
Don't you see he can't stand it any more?

Come one, leave him.

Yes, it's better.

You like also to play but...

Come away from that pillow, come on!

Marco, what title
will this documentary have?

A title? "A moron like you"...

Jackass!

Sorry guys, I need to go for a while.

Stop it, Paolo.

I only read the Gospel.

Is this kid reading the Gospel?

Why should I care about the church?

It's too bad.

Is it good?

It's alright.

Not this. This one.
- Show it to the camera!

This is also nice!
- Down there she has something, ahah!

Do you like it?

Do you wanna see this one in the middle?

Don't move it!

It's too hard trying to leave him with
my father, he's been with my sister...

Excuse me, lady, can I play with you?

Paolo had a very violent reaction
to the teachers.

He started trembling with convulsions
and his face turned pale.

He took a rod
and started to beat the teachers,

interspersed with quite violent epithets.

"Fuck off, bitch"...
things like that.

Anyway "bitch" was the most used one.

Offending more women than men.

We found out the meaning of this
in the relationship he has with his mother.

Scuffles with classmates, intolerance for
teachers, insults, running outdoors...

climbing out of windows and
escaping from school and so on.

After three days...

I took him back,

running after him
because of a new escape attempt.

As I took his arm, he...

he had a really instinctive violent
reaction, starting to insult me.

I can't remember exactly the insults,

I remember that I answered him

to go fuck himself
and that if he doesn't like

school he could just stroll around,
making us all happy...

He told me I'm an asshole
and I answered his mother is a bitch...

We went on like this
at full speed of insult...

until he understood I was much better than
him in offending a person, even more evil.

Besides he knew that the freedom
of making a mess is a right.

You have the right
to do it because you need it.

To sing, to scream, to break something.
You need this kind of violence.

He has never been in a school

and he felt himself as inferior.

In my opinion, debatable,

his behaviour can be seen as
a sort of payback which he wanted because

others were able to gain
certain achievements

and he needed to have
some kind of balance.

Something...
which at this point was...

was about throwing things,
climbing ledges...

He doesn't want to come back in?

He doesn't want to and if you insist
he starts to answer badly.

He has a really precise idea about school,
very rigid idea. More than we can imagine.

It was humiliating for him because
he didn't pass to the second class,

while everyone else did.

A much more rigid idea
than what we would ever have.

Maybe it's something left over
from his experience with the Institution.

The psychiatrist isn't coming.

If you come in, Paolo,
we would be very happy.

Fuck off!

This is his usual answer.

What do you think about Paolo?

Well, in my opinion

we can see we are really forward in
studying and he does these stupid things...

to show us that he's at our same level.

Let's go back to the question
made by this man.

He asked if you are satisfied by school

related with the problem
of our classmate Paolo.

Last time regarding
our teasing Bernardi...

He took a lock from him

and threw it out of the window.

So that morning during art class
he was telling me off about it, insulting.

So then I had enough and I told him:

"Look, we're not holding you
here at school."

So he said he wanted
to speak later with school principal.

Somebody else told me that

if it wasn't depending on them

they could have kicked me out
whenever they wanted.

That's what was said at the class meeting.
We can decide about him.

To stand by him and be good to him,

to treat him like one of us
and make him understand this.

He's not different from us,
he's like us.

Can you repeat the question?

The best friends you had in this class were
the one who didn't accept your behaviour.

And were telling you to take care
and to write your exercises and sit down...

Just a few told me this.

There are.
And those are your best friends.

Do you believe it?

No.

Oh sure!
When I wasn't giving you something...

When you got something from me
you were good but otherwise...

Opportunists!

Aren't you thinking about
going back to school?

Do you want it or not?

I would like and I wouldn't.

There is a reason...

We've made a program with you. If you want
we can revise it and restart together.

You should remember that
I tore it up, that program!

I did it even in front of
the school principal who gave it to me.

How was the program?

One hour per day...

It was a program
trying to involve Paolo

in something which he could
find interesting and engage in.

I think he is good
with manual activities...

like technical and
artistic drawing, gymnastics

He was really good in drawing class.

The teacher was trying to help him

Actually I had liked
all the subjects... all of them...

I was just looking for
somebody to help me, to be honest.

Listen to me!

The first time I came in class they didn't
let me glue or cut things, nothing.

I got disappointed
because I couldn't do anything.

Meanwhile all other groups had their task.

One was glueing or cutting
or measuring or drawing.

Yet the teacher taught you
to make that sort of racket

which you broke on his head later.

I didn't mean to do it...

Yet you made it.

When you arrived in class you broke it...

He was never studying with us
or making things together.

He was always outside.

Excuse me!

Was I the only one who wasn't studying
and doing homework?

So what?

You were always outside!

Yes, I was. At least I didn't
stay inside pretending to study.

You didn't even have your books.

Listen, Paolo. Once you got mad

because your mother talked about things
you didn't want made public...

You don't want to speak
about your situation at home, right?

Well, that's enough!

I'll heat up if you go on!
- Why?

Because I will! Come on!

Let's stop it!

You don't want us to speak
about your mother?

Don't insist or I'll leave!

Without putting on that fancy smile!

So you don't want to answer?

Can you do me a favour?
Can we change the conversation?

Or I'll get up and leave!
- As this conversation is...

Yes! Put it aside, apart.

So you choose the subject...

School!

Let's continue with it.
Why do you wanna change it now?

I remember Paolo 5 years ago because
his mother came to the town council

saying she wanted to get him
into hospital because he was a psycho.

A kid! Can you imagine that?

We refused that and instead
we offered a totally different approach.

Shallowly we could have said that
the mother was the crazy one and not Paolo.

Yet it wasn't true because the mother
had her own sustainability problems.

A woman on her own, working all day,
an elderly person at home, no assistance.

The boy's got problems
growing up without a father.

It wasn't possible to label her
as the unstable one.

It was necessary to give
the proper assistance to the mother.

That's what we did in the end.
Now Paolo is well accepted by his mother.

For God sake, I don't want to impose
my ideas on the other people.

So on the contrary
I just give my personal opinion.

I'm not insisting about
sending Paolo to school at any cost.

Because in the last three years here
he always refused the school.

He wants a job.

And he wants friends.

We need to help him get a job

and assist him
with the possibility of having friends.

Well, Angelo, that's your town.

Yes.

This town is uninhabited

Yes, it is.

You told us about a strong emigration.
Was it the same with all your relatives?

Yes.

I told you. To France.

Why?

Those fake politicians talking about
a plan for the rebirth of mountain life,

but then they just kick people's asses

and use the area for summer residences
of those parasites and filthy animals

living in the dirtiest mud
of limitless selfishness...

Coming here to insult people
with their wealth.

What's the duty of the priest here?

The duty of the priest here
is to be a servant

of the Christian Democrats.
That's enough about defining him.

Angelo's first problem
was the fact of being illegitimate.

He and his mother were living
quite far from a normal populated town,

therefore having mobility problems.

All the mountain life problems and lack of
external help to take care about the child

led to the decision
to bring him to the orphanage.

Later, he was hospitalized
in another institution.

From Fontanella you go to Montechiarugolo
and then further to Cento.

And then from Cento to Novellara.

That's where he lives now.

Can you tell us about Angelo's childhood
and how life was in this village?

Why Did Angelo have
to move to a private institution?

The problem is that we are poor, right?

That's why we did like this until now.

Couldn't Angelo have stayed here
to live with you all this time?

Somehow maybe yes...

He was a sickly boy, bad lungs...

He even passed out once.

Dead for an hour and a quarter.

When I was at the hospital I remember
a few times when I almost died.

I guess my physical situation
was not so good at that time...

Such...

When Angelo was born, was the village
even poorer than now? Were you working?

Just few days,
but then I got sick, bronchitis.

In 1956 I spent a month in the hospital
and then later another month in 1961.

All the time under treatment
for that bronchitis

which doesn't kill you,
but you can't cure.

I had good and bad periods.

Then you have been to Milan.

I've been to Milan
working for three months,

but I always met bad people.
Unlucky all the time.

All your brothers had to emigrate?

Well, it's easy to explain...

Two of them saw work wasn't paying well,
so they left for France.

Two, Massari Giuseppe, the younger
and Massari Alfredo.

And Massari Giacomo, the third one,

used to take care of the animals,
without really doing good...

Then he started to drink.

Drinking a lot and running away
from one town to another...

going in and out of jail.
But only for drinking problems.

Now it's already 20 or 21 years
that he's in Colorno.

In the asylum you mean.

At his age it's still a risk for him.

He could make trouble.
You need to control him.

Lately he's been declared dangerous

because of all those treatments
and medicines which changed him.

He's in ruins.

Where are your brothers now?

It's five months that I have
no clue about where he is.

He went back home
last summer on 17th of September,

but then because of some mischief
against a nun in Chiavari...

What did he do?

Who knows. He probably
talked about politics if he was drunk.

Yes, he went in front of a church
to talk about Russia

and the nun tried to stop him
pushing him away.

He made a mistake.

Last questions...

You told us you had a strong affection
for your grandfather.

One day they told you he died.
Can you tell us about that day?

I was working in the garage,
having a good time.

Then they called me on the phone
informing me my grandfather was dead.

For me it was a real blow.

Because he was a bit like
a father for you.

Yes, of course.

I had to get out immediately
because I couldn't work any more.

I came back for the funeral, then...

How was it then here?

A lot of crying.

If we organize a dinner
he's coming as well like everybody else.

A few times a year.

Did you discuss with Angelo about politics?

A lot...

About what precisely?

He stands up for his thoughts...

He needs tranquillity but the environment
he was in didn't give him that.

Too much agitated.

You mean the Marxist-Leninist group?

You feel more critical
towards them as well now...

I've been in one of those meetings to take
a look and I end up talking with a guy

who was saying that the radical
extra parliamentary left wing

is made of the same kind of people.

They bark a lot but when they need
to bite they break their teeth.

The starting point was the hate
toward everything and everybody

and this made me turn into a wild beast
incapable of thinking.

Later things changed

and the hate was pointed
against injustice,

no matter where from
or who was associated with it.

He changed a lot.

You are happier?

He's a singer!

He is always singing and joking around.

You were talking about the hate
which changed its target

since the class conflict is still on.

Who are the political opponents
according to you?

Who should we fight in your opinion?

I can tell you in a few words,

the people we should fight against
are the Vatican, landowners, overlords,

considering that a lot of them
are even wearing a communist mask.

People like the P.C.I. is wearing a mask,
as well as the pro-soviets.

Those are the fake communists.

I'm quite severe on this topic.

Actually now I'm supporting
a bit the P.C.I.

because now they are the only ones
who could shake up the working class.

We don't need divisions right now.

I heard that you want to become
a member of the P.C.I.

I thought about it but
it'll be a contradiction

considering my ideological beliefs.

Since you're always talking about Stalin,
let's talk about Stalinism.

The process of de-stalinization
has just found Stalin's faults.

Nothing has changed,
same bureaucratic aspects,

same repression against intellectuals.

Some of those intellectuals
deserve repression.

Don't come around
with that theory, please!

I agree about
the bureaucratic degeneration,

but the Stalinist politic line about
the dictatorship of the working class

and the creation of
socialism and the fight for it...

That's the right line,

you can't de-stalinize
the dictatorship of the working class.

Mao made it good by simply fixing
mistakes and without de-stalinization.

As Mao said, there were two swords.
One was Lenin and the other one was Stalin!

They abandoned Stalin!

At the 20th Congress
they shit all over Lenin as well!

Because they knew it!

They knew Lenin was bringing
a totally different concept.

Yet now those jackals dared to give people
their Party-card pretending to be Leninist.

They dumped the red flag
of revolution into the mud.

Those people are not communists!
They are traitors!

They're in power just because of some
limits and mistakes made by Stalin.

Taking power they squashed
the working class under an iron heel,

under a fascist dictatorship!

Those people have nothing
to share with Stalin or Lenin.

Excuse me, before you were speaking
about democratic centralism.

Yet with Stalin there was not centralism.
It was a centralization.

Look! I don't care about
intellectual conversations,

I follow my line
and you can do what the fuck you want!

I follow the same Chinese line.

The Chinese said that Stalin at one point

failed in the application
of democratic centralism. He did.

I agree with this.

That was not a small mistake.
- Come on!

Marco was telling us something earlier.

One of the worst problems is solitude.

He's talking a lot about it.

Do you have this feeling as well?
Do you want to talk about it?

It's not about avoiding talk of it.
I feel as well the same problem.

But I feel it differently.

I saw solitude as a part
of the structure of this society

Sometimes I feel
like telling you my honest opinion.

Talking about politics, sometimes, it seems
you're trying to escape your real problems.

For you it's a sort of runaway.

I disagree. My need to fight with
the others is a personal need.

Marco, during your worst periods
you even tried to kill yourself.

Did Montagnana province
assist you into recovering?

Yes, they did help me.

Because I did some bad things.

I had a bad time and I took
some trilene to kill myself.

I've been really sick
and Montagnana helped me.

Were there any
specific reasons for doing it?

Yes, there were.

On one side I was feeling
a bit lonely outside.

I wasn't able to solve
many problems in the proper way.

It was normal to think such bad things.

Here is written:
real age, 6. Mind age, 3. IQ 0.55.

The child cannot benefit
from a normal school.

Considering also the family situation
we suggest to shelter him in an institution

for partially recoverable weak minds.

This thing about
"partially recoverable" stands because

there is even nowadays the concept
of being recoverable or not.

Yet we've already discussed this concept
doesn't exist. Nothing is unrecoverable.

This concept has been
outmoded at least for us.

You doing well?

Yes, I am.
I work, I can handle myself.

I'm doing well at work.

Do you like your colleagues?
- They're quite good.

Sometimes they joke, to make me laugh,
because I'm really serious.

It's been hard with Marco
for the first few months.

Marco was barely talking to anyone and
had really strong depressive break-downs.

Really strong and frequent ones which
led him to hide all day under the bed,

shouting non-stop.

Let's read this story.
What's it about?

What is written here?

"labourer"

Something which regards you also.

What does it say here?

Paolo

is

a labourer.

but

wants

to

bec-

-come

Tell us about visiting him at theSacra
Famiglia Institution in Cesano Bosconi.

OK. Have you seen where it's located?

5-6 kilometres away. I walked there!

Step by step.

I'll make it little by little!

When I arrived there they asked me:
Who are you?

"Who are you?"
They'd never met me.

Look, I'm Cattani Marco's mother.

He called the doctor, so I waited.

Then I was asked:
"Didn't you die?"

Whatever, why was that?

I answered "Look! I'm alive, not dead!"

"They told me you died. Yet you really look
like him so I guess you're the mother."

Of course! He's my son!

And we look really similar.

So he is convinced.

Finally I met him,
with this bald head and so pale.

I said nothing right there at that moment.
Then they put us in a changing room.

I asked him then:
Are you fine here?

No, I'm not.
They beat me, they cut my hair.

Why did they cut it?

Because he had lice!
How come?

What to do?

So "aren't you OK?" I asked.

He told me "No, please get me out of here
because I'm going mad".

and "There are loonies here!
Such things there are!"

So I got things fixed with a letter.

And I got him out of there.

There was there one guy...

One of those real loonies,
he asked me something....

He said:
"Do they sell medicines in Parma?"

Why? Don't they sell them here also?

And then another one.

He came near me and looked at me.

He said "Don't worry about them,
they're loonies!"

No, they are drunk!

Then "You know what, madam?"
another one said.

"You're really beautiful!"

OK! OK! thank you, get off!

I saw another one.

He was making...

War!

I asked and they answered
"It's a solitary war, since he's alone!"

Unbelievable!

He was breaking windows
so they put the straight-jacket on him.

What a mess my son was living in!

You separated from your husband, right?

It's 25 years we've not seen each other.

I don't want to see him
because he makes me sick!

You know that?

I don't wanna look at him,
I hope he drops down dead.

I would go there to stab him,
but I don't care.

I don't wanna hear about him!

What is your husband now doing?

He's living the life of a criminal!

How does he live?

How he lives?
He collects cardboard from markets.

Selling them, buying food
or going to eat at the priests'.

At priests'.

Do you know where he lives?

He lives in those big blocks
near our daughter's area.

Do you ever meet him in the streets?
- I don't ever wanna see him!

He's a waste!

What you said?

When he dies,
I'll dress in red.

I have that dress!

Will you be really happy?

Yes, of course. Not even one tear!

Thanks for getting rid of such a villain.

Don't you think
he just got unlucky in his life?

That's because he likes to drink!

You know what he does? He drinks
two glasses and then he goes to sleep!

And he has no money!

A shepherd was taking care of my daughter.

Giovanna!

My husband took her out of there.

Do you know what she's doing now?

A prostitute!

20 years old, starting to be a prostitute!

What should I say?

Your daughter lives with your husband?

Yes, she does.
And now she is in the racket.

Nobody can help her already!

Do you know that
they put me in a house of correction?

In Bologna.

There is such a story,
you could write a novel from it!

My childhood's been hard as well
because of my mother who didn't love me.

I was ten and like orphan!

At ten I lived on the street!!

At ten!

Do you see?

Yet I was not like those bitches,

I never did that life,
I could do that all day long.

Do you see?

Then she abandoned us for 2 years.

I got chilblains that time
because the nuns didn't let me stay warm.

After that they put me
in a house of correction!

Does Marco know about his sister?

He knows the life she's living.

She went to visit him once.

Marco had to tell her something
and in the end she wanted to beat him!

So Marco saw his sister on the street.

She wanted to beat him!

The sister wanted to beat her brother!

If only another brother would have
been there to kick her ass!

Marco is good person.

You should kick her ass
for a sister like this!

That bitch!

I tried to tell her in a good manner.
"You will regret it!" I said.

She answered me "I do what I want.
You were a whore also, I can do it, too!"

Do you see?

One is a whore and the other as well.

There is nothing we can do, here.

And you think that
it's your husband's fault, right?

Of course. She was living with him.

She started when
she moved into his place?

That's when she started
living a fine life.

He used to be drunk.
He just needed a glass of wine for it.

They end up fighting, she beats him.

Was she beating him?

Yes, her father!

She beats him
and then she can do what she wants.

Is your daughter
with someone who protects her?

Yes.

Do you know him?
- Yes.

It's a man called Mauro.

Once I was at their place
and he wanted to beat her.

He wanted to beat her?
- Yes, my daughter.

Why?

Why?

Because he's a pimp.

Is he from this area, Parma?

He's not. I don't know.

They just met once and since then he's
living good squandering money from her job

How should I keep going?

Bearing all this...

With nothing I can do.

I would go there to smash his face.

Besides, right now...

you don't have any support...

Just a small pension.
Because of my hand.

I damaged my hand because of work.

It was last year
and I had Marco at home, alone.

See this? I get a pension
because I damaged my hand.

Marco was home alone
and I was hurt at 5.00 am.

I've got stitches
'cause I broke the phalanx.

How much do you get from the pension?

Do you want to know? Try to guess!

More or less!

340,000?

No way! In two months
I get 12,000 Lire.

Isn't it bad?

Is that the only support you have?

Only that.

Every two months.

I had to sleep in hotels
because I had no home.

Forced to live like the rich.

I've been a prostitute for two years.

Are you aware the State

is trying to help those youngsters
who have these kind of problems?

OK, but they should help the mothers, too.
Not only the youngsters!

It's OK to help youngsters and so on...

but they should help the mother as well!
What the heck!

They do this for them and not for me?
I would go to them and kick their asses!

For fuck sake I'm gonna beat them!

So you don't get any other support?

The Eca gives me 3.000 Lire.

It's every month.

Can I live with this?

I can live happily.

When have you ever been
happy in your life?

Never.

Do you want to talk about your son?

Why?

Let's speak about Marco.

No...

Do you have a job at the moment?

No, I'm jobless.

You can't find a job?

I can't! I've got arthritis!

You're ill.

What were you doing before?

Collecting cardboxes.

Your wife said you're irresponsible.

No, my wife ... (?)

Why?

First she ran away to Milan,
then came back to Parma

and then again she abandoned the family,
staying with another man.

Your son was not feeling well
in the Institution.

Couldn't you take care of him?

How?

What do you mean?

How could I do it alone?

When he was a baby...

Now you have an adult daughter
who was living with you recently.

You mean Giovanna!
- Wait a moment!

Let me go! Stop it!

We would like to film the children
inside the Institution.

I don't think so.
Have you already been here?

No, I've never been here.
Is there a Mother Superior?

Yes. I could allow you inside for now,
but you need proper permission...

We can wait as well.

She is quite busy actually...

OK. thanks.

So it's impossible.

Is there a reason? Can you tell us?

I don't know the real reason
but I just know that...

Please don't film me.

No way?

Sorry, but we can't allow it.

We can't film with the camera?

No, nothing can be filmed.

Do you think it's a rule
that works also for other Institutions?

Look! We have those orders
because it's a private place.

Not inside nor outside
and neither with the children.

First take. "Biondi" Institution.

My order is to let nobody enter.

Listen, In every Institution
they don't want to let us in.

Sorry, I can't do it!
I'm not allowed to, alright?

Are there some superior orders?

Superior orders told me this.
I can't go against it.

There's no religious Institution
where we can enter.

Not even to film some empty rooms?

Not even to film some empty rooms!

Why not?

That's the order they gave me
and I abide by it.

Is there somebody in charge
for this order? Who decides?

I can go and ask...
Excuse me, what are you doing there?!

Nothing.

Yet you're doing something.

Yes, we're filming.

OK, so I can do nothing.

What about the Mother Superior?

Not even look at one room?

When are the children coming back?

You don't want to talk any more?

You've stopped talking?

Maybe we can call later on the phone.

Probably there were some institutions
which were using improper methods.

Yet you need to know they were
just blowing clouds of nonsense

with this national campaign they made up

about the beatings and so on...

For political purposes...

All regional or provincial or national
movements have a political background.

Everything wants to be political
with its own purpose.

Excuse me, I'm really explicit!

Have you heard about the
Pagliuca case in Rome?

Of course!
Some of those cases really happened!

Luckily, Marco ran away from the "Sacra
Famiglia" Institution in Cesano Boscone.

"Sacra Famiglia"is a place
where you enter aged six

and you can't get out even after dying.

Not really. We all know
how it is in Cesano Boscone.

In other times they had
all these handicapped people

who needed to be placed somewhere.

How long are you here
away from Cesano Boscone?

Already 6 years.

Since my childhood I experienced
places which I wouldn't consider nice.

Half of those places
were treating people like dogs.

I ended up in this kind of Institution,
treated like a dog and without a diploma.

I was working all day long in Milan.
- What were you doing?

I was working with lights,
assembling various parts.

And I was paid 400 Lire per week
which is nothing for what I was doing!

I saw terrible things with my own eyes!

Yet I can't do a thing
because I can't prove it.

Many Institutions treat guys like animals.

There's another problem
which regards homosexuality...

Come on, give it up!!

There's something to say

about the homosexuality
in those institutions.

It depends... In 5 years of my career
I saw a couple of cases.

About eventual support I can say that
if one is not a convinced Christian

he can't make a sacrifice
for learning, caring or sharing,

or becoming oneself with those people..

What did you become now?

Before you were a Christian,
but later what was your tumble? Tell us.

Well, the church
is not like you understand it.

There's a lot of corruption
in the church nowadays.

I can give an example.

The Vatican have billions
but outside their doors they have tramps.

I don't believe in this church.

He's like the film in a movie,
spinning non stop.

Well, when we deal with a communist, ...

I'll tell you I'm anti-communist...

When I meet a communist
I can tell exactly what he's going to say.

About the Pope,
the Spanish Inquisition and so on.

Looking for all
the bad things he can find.

All this will to demilitarise and so on.

That's the method
to create a communist person!

The will to create kindergarten
and school full-time... Here it is!

To de-Christianize and to take people
away from their own families.

So kids refuse to go back home and
cry to be able to stay at school instead.

They can no more
recognize their own mother.

That's their purpose!

First I would say...

A person who is Christian...

fighting for his political ideas...

into the Class Conflict... He could be
near god, much more than somebody who...

Leave the class conflict apart!
It doesn't involve Christian beliefs.

So you're still stuck to that movement
called "Communion and Liberation".

No! "Comunione e Liberazione"
deny the conflict.

They think to solve
all the problems with the Mass.

With non-violence.

Anyway I'm also
against a certain kind of violence.

You should be against
all kinds of violence!

Yet not when they inflict violence on us!

One should react if
they're inflicting violence on us!

There should be no violence on both parts.
Love should reign among us, not violence!

Of course! Yet the ones
who own the capital, the money,

they want to improve it
and they can't say...

Obviously the middle-class
always get ahead.

I've nothing to add to it.

They are prepared on purpose.

I can also be attacked
because I'm a priest

and I'm part of this middle-class
and those parasites.

No!

Those are the words they're using,
they are taught like that!

Wait a second!

You are convinced of that,
but the truth is

too many times the Church
has been an instrument of power

and the most reactive-reactionary
parts of it are still like this nowadays.

Don't speak bullshit.

That's no bullshit!

Yet Angelo is saying
to not lump everything together!

About the fact the Church being involved
with power... OK, that was temporary...

That's a fact! It is!

Yet the Church
now has no powers as you said.

And those Institutions where intelligent guys
are put in and become bumbling people?

That's true. I saw it with my own eyes!

I get angry over it! The middle class is the
instrument which is supposed to help us!

They put their money on that!

Priests are not involved
in all that as instruments.

He upholds that. It's a profession he
doesn't like. He's been taught like that.

Priests help
the middle class to get ahead.

That's not true.

In my opinion it's all wrong.

I was harmed! I've experienced
those bad things since I was a kid.

We had our own problems
at that time in my family.

My mother had to put me
in an Institution,

which is a place where the middle-class
put those guys to rot apart.

They go in as intelligent people
but then they come out as stupid!

Without a diploma or any work training,

to be able to be a part of society!

I really struggled to stand up society
and to find a job.

To develop some basic things...
Nobody helped me.

Later only the county's office helped me
to find a job and to make me feel good.

That's when my life started!

Before I would just
stare at four walls and nothing else!

I've being treated badly.

Friends have being treated
the same as me, too.

I'm talking about real facts.

That's what I experienced and remember.

Those are the fishy things I experienced,
from which I learnt nothing!

Should we stand those congressmen?!
- They are not congressmen.

Obviously we can't stand
for that Cardinal Henríquez

who after the massacre happened in Chile
congratulated Pinochet's junta.

We can't stand those kinds of people!

I want to fight those who harmed me.

Come on!
How will you go about that?

The Church stands for 2,000 years even after
all those who wanted to fight against it!

They all broke their horns and vanished,
yet the Church stayed!

That will happen
as long as it has already been.

Excuse me...

The problem is if those...

Wait a moment!

I'm talking about the hassle which is
put into our soul against the Church!

Here it is...

The Church needs to have properties
because it has a world of things to run.

They hold the diplomacy
in all the world and so on...

Do you think they'll sell
all those Vatican's treasures?

To sell out to the State?

A beautiful Institution doesn't exist.
There's only one kind. A bad one.

Just because it has walls and fences
and it's own logic.

Which is a logic of exclusion.

There is nothing to do.

In any ways it constricts you
and it ends always in a loop.

Who is working in these Institutions?

We were all losers.
I say 'we' because I was one of them.

We were people who didn't yet
have a degree in medicine.

I couldn't find a place, except there.
I was important there, I had a role.

And the patients suffered for that.

Other ones were all people
who couldn't find a job outside.

Yet they could stay there.

That's how it really was.

They were losers who were trying
to teach how to live to outcasts.

They said they just need
to improve a few facilities.

In my opinion they should rather destroy
those facilities, instead of improving them.

They need to be torn down!

That's why I'm deeply disappointed.

It seemed that the Institution
was able to sustain itself,

but it fails because of the will of the owner
who was not making enough money.

It has to be said without any fear!

In the facility where we were working
everything was happening inside it.

The life was inside. The community's
main events were Christmas,

the First Communion
and football matches.

Once I've been in an Institution...

where the majority
of boys were homosexual

yet not because of any illness.

They just liked to bully
the younger ones.

I entered this specific Institution

and I saw all these dirty things.

It happened to me. I got
mixed up in certain of their orgies.

I didn't actively participate,
but I found my self involved in it

and it was disgusting!

I didn't experience this kind of thing.

We never ended up
talking about these things.

There wasn't even time to do it
because your time there was filled up.

We were playing football.

On Sunday we used to go for excursions.

Or sometimes
I was an altar boy during Mass.

I spent my spare time well.

About prostitutes?

Actually, they... I mean
there was this male nurse in Montagnana.

He was even married.

So it was risky for him to do it,
to bring boys to those prostitutes.

He tried to be careful
to let them have intercourse

and dealing for honest prices also.

He was balancing the situation, let's say.

So we went together a couple of times,
actually I've already gone on my own,

just for the company.

I guess for them it's a quite interesting
experience, being the first time...

Yet I've got this friend of mine....

who didn't enjoy at all because
I guess he couldn't succeed.

It went wrong.

A few days later
he was still living a sort of tragedy.

Yet they were having
a negative experience

which ended right after.
They'd get ahead and forget it.

Were you there when it was happening?

Yes, I was. I went a couple of times
together with Mr Montebello.

Once near Lodi
and the other time in Parma.

The first time has been
very negative for me. I couldn't succeed.

I left with a heavy heart.

There were reasons

which didn't let me succeed.

I won't explain the reasons
because they are really simple ones.

Yet the third time went really well.
We drove to a place near Lodi.

So that time I succeeded.

Actually I don't know why
I couldn't make it the second time.

Perhaps...

at that time I wasn't
in the mood for doing it.

Do you think it has been
a positive experience after all?

No, it isn't at all!

It doesn't make you grow up as a man.

To be mature I mean.

A girl is a serious thing,
while a whore is something else.

Obviously you can't
have a human touch with a whore.

You can with a girl.

You know,
for a lost bitch nobody is crying!

Because you can just
find another one who fits you!

That's the morality.

I heard you are a great thrower
of knives plus various objects...

So you can't stay in school, right?

No, I can't stay still there for 5 hours.

Yet your friends can do it.
Why can they in your opinion?

Because they are out of the ordinary!

I understand...

Actually they can't stand it, either.
Even in other classes.

You want live your life on the loose.

Not my whole life!
I've still got a whole life in front of me!

I mean now...
- Now yes!

Are you happy with that, doing nothing?

No.

What do you want to do?
- Go to work.

Why aren't you doing it?
- 'cause of my age!

Do you think to solve
all your problems by going to work?

No! Yet maybe just a little.

Why isn't your father living with you?

I don't know...
because my mother drinks a lot!

She drinks and then... 'Sob'!

She goes in the street, roaming around...

She drinks a lot and
many times went to the hospital.

Once she stayed there
for a year and a half.

Do you feel sorry for the fact that
your mother got married three times?

Do you mean for me?

Well, once is enough.

Maybe two, but not three!

Damn...

She's got a husband collection!

I don't get it....

Anyway I prefer to stay in
Montagnana instead of home.

So why were you running away?

Well, I was older and
I needed a bit of freedom.

The gates remain open there, right?

Damn it. They were saying
"Don't go there! Stay here"

and so on and so on....

So sometimes I was tired of it
and used to run away.

Three times. Once even when we were
out at the seaside, do you remember?

And the psychologist?
- She was also a devil!

What did she ask you?

I already told you about....

"Be a good boy" and so on....

One time, two times,
then three and four and five!

The sixth time I had enough
and I locked her inside.

I threw away the key
and the janitors couldn't find it.

Then I retrieved it
and threw it out of the window!

Is she just telling you to be a good boy?

Well she was also telling me
to study saying "It will help you.

Study, it'll be good for you!"

By dint of studying
I could just lose weight!

I don't get it....

She was telling you just that?
- Yes!

"Behave!"

Was she telling also
"Behave at home as well!"?

Yes!

She was saying "Come and
have lunch with me" to cosy up to me.

"No!"

"Please"

"No!"

"Please"

"No!"

Then I would slam the door in her face.

She could go on asking
until the day after tomorrow!

I don't like people who repeat things.

Do you think she is doing it....?

She's doing it also to help me.

Yet she doesn't understand you.

No. I don't understand her!

It's the same thing...

I had fun!

I was painting with toothpaste
on women's faces.

Then I was put their hand in a basin
full of water while they were sleeping

and they were pissing the bed!
Try it!

Really?

Sure! You put the hand in the water
and you pee in bed!

Who did you do it to?

To Danila, do you remember?
She was peeing so much!

That's crazy!

You can just put your hand
in the water and that's it.

Yet only for peeing!

That's incredible!

I've never heard anything
like that in my life!

You've got an arsenal of mischief!

Then we were doing that "bag" prank!

We cut just a little bit of the sheet,

then when you go to bed
you rip it, making a huge hole!

You mean you were setting it like that...?

No, wait! Look, I'll explain it to you!

For example, when you go to bed...

like that, you get in...

Yet we had a method.
By doing like that...

We folded it and then he ripped it
by getting in with no clue!

There was this woman in my city,
kind of fancy and smug...

You know what happened?

They took a ... turd...

They packed it nicely with a note in which
was written words from the turd itself

as if it was talking for real.

It said "I was
feeling lonely for long time,

but finally I found my soul mate.
Together we'll be happy".

That was in my town!

"Get out!"

What did you do then?

I stayed.

"Get out!"

I stayed, so she decided to go out.

She went to call the principal I guess...

The principal gave me some chocolate.

You decided to embrace
this experience of having at home

for one year six guys
classified as 'irrecoverable'.

First we thought to let them
find themselves in a familiar environment.

At home we had normal furniture

which didn't recall Institution images.

Even alcohol was at hand
but they never made use of it.

In my opinion kids make use of those things
when they are hidden from them.

We treated them like
they were part of the family.

We avoided keeping
all those kinds of Institution clothes.

In the beginning

we were going out all together
to let them know the city.

They knew nothing at all...

Nothing! They didn't know
how to wash themselves.

Actually things were getting better
later in Montagnana.

Yet they couldn't even stay dressed

and eating with their hands like animals.

They were afraid of walking
in the street because of the cars,

which they'd just seen from the windows
of the Institution. They were scared.

They didn't know anything
about money at all.

Little by little
they got acquainted with the city,

taking the bus, going to cinema
by themselves and spending money.

If we were going to cinema we wanted
to let them buy their own ticket.

At home we had a small box
with their money,

to teach them about it.

Already from the first night those guys
changed, they used to be always agitated,

jumping around and fighting
each other. Yet not at home!

They were quiet, like normal boys
from the very first day.

One of themsaw
the brand-new and nice furniture

and said "Before sitting
I'm should put on my best clothes!"

Looking at each other
they were touching a cabinet saying

"Do you have clean hands?
Don't dirty it!"

There was one of them, Giorgio Alfieri,

who as soon as his clothes
got a stain or in bad shape

was asking to immediately
changes his clothes.

In the Institution
they used to live naked

in muck and filth,

almost malnourished and tied up.

One of them, Francesco,

had blisters in his heels

because he used
to be tied up on the chair.

He couldn't wear shoes
so we had him operated on,

otherwise he wouldn't even
have been able to walk properly.

For years, they used to tie him up.

Henceforth, they inherited
everything from that Institution.

Classified as 'irrecoverable'
because placed in the chronic ward.

Together with 90 year olds!

Since their childhood!
They inherited everything from there!

The Institution shaped their violence.

Guglielmo was called
'the beater' of Sospiro.

If orderlies wanted to beat a patient

they used to ask Guglielmo
to not get their hands dirty.

He used to rush to do it,
he really was 'the beater'.

Yet with us he has never been violent.

When we decided to start this new family

we wanted to get elements and facts
to prove those boys could change

and saying that society is wrong!

It's a mistake which shouldn't exist!

We've got evidence about how these boys
were before and how they are now!

We should understand that
and not leave these as empty words!

Bertozzi is coming? Who is he?

Was he working with you at the factory?

Together with Teresa.

You were working with him, right?

Yes.

Francesco, how is your father?

He is good, yet I should write to him...

actually he writes to me,
I don't need to do it....

we keep a correspondence with my family.

My mother died three months ago.

I hoped... didn't see her again.

When Alfieri started to work
with this semi-automatic machine

where you need to coordinate yourself
by putting sheet metal

and pressing a pedal
with your foot to cut it,

he was doing it perfectly
without any problems.

Yet the employer didn't care about it

and preferred to donate money
as charity instead of keeping him at work.

So when we saw the employer
refusing to continue with him

we understood that it was necessary
to involve the other workers,

who are our only power in the factory.

So we told them their collaboration was
indispensable if we want to help these boys.

Yet the employer was not
permitting them to do it!

When they tried to help
he told them:

"Mind your own work and do it! If he can't
work let them come to take him away!"

Employer was really preventing
the workers from helping our boys!

That's how a private factory was!

Class conflict has always been hard!

It's also never thoroughly won!

It consists of small battles
which you need to fight and win!

Little by little, day by day,
working on it!

The discharge of these boys
is an occasion to act on this topic

and that's what we are trying to do!

Long live the labourers of the workshop!

These are card cases for buses.

How old are you?
- 25.

How long is it
that you've been working here.

It's long time.

Three months...
No, three years!

Do you like it?
- Yes, I do!

Do you get on with colleagues?
- Yes!

Do you prefer to stay here or at home?
- Here!

I prefer here. It's work!

It all started because the president
of the firm got interested in it.

He asked the union representative
if it was possible to start an experiment

about putting these boys
to work with us.

We agreed about making it happen

and then we realized that

we went even further than an experiment
as it's already three years they are here!

They mean a lot to us
because when they first came in

some of them where not even
able to stay close to the workers.

Later they acquainted themselves
and became friends.

Before it we knew nothing
about all those problems.

How could we know about it?

They were confined in Institutions
or at home.

That's the problem
for their integration into society!

They were limited to deal only
with families and certain persons,

so it was impossible for us
to know these problems existed!

There are three of them.
Two are misfits,

while the other one is mongoloid.

Those two easily fitted in since
they had less 'difficulties', let's say...

For the mongoloid it's been harder since he
had his own habits and way of doing things.

Yet...

the mongoloid had a big plus:
affection!

They have a strong affection
for people who get closer to them.

Like Fabio. Nobody messes with him!

The mongoloid learned
to do this job properly like we do.

Yet he needed sometimes to stop,
to move around, to go to the toilet...

Little by little he got acquainted...

When they came the first time

everyone of them was in awe

but later they got along
with us and became friendly.

We noticed they need their time

for learning how to work full time.

We wanted to understand
how to involve them

and make their life better.

And we did it.
It's improving day by day.

The positive thing is that
these guys are happy to stay here!

When we need
to move their shift it's a tragedy!

It's a tragedy for them of course.

And we feel sorry as well
since they are part of our team.

We also end up giving to him
and Luigi their own badge

to swipe when they start.

For them it's incredible!

They never forget to do it and
that's a way to make them feel equal.

Everybody made progress,
even the most serious?

Everybody!

Yet you need to know we deal here
with the most problematic ones.

They are the most 'irrecoverable'.

Even if the work wouldn't help
we are recovering them,

from an intellectual point of view.

We can notice it everyday.
It's a convenient and normal method.

Actually we discovered
that sort of sense of humanity

which previously we were maybe losing.

These boys are really friends with
each other. They love one another.

Seeing this love among them

made us rediscovering this feeling.

They taught us something, too.

Is it you who delete
the Sundays from the calendar?

No, it was me!
I deleted Saturdays and Sundays!

You'd like to stay here all the time?
- Yes, all the time!

Living here you mean?

Yes, I want to stay here forever
together with all the labourers and friends!

With all of them,
like Stefano and the others!

For real, all the time here!

That's it!

Stefano, what's
the last grade you completed?

5th grade of elementary school.
It went fine.

Why did you quit?
- Because I don't like studying.

Are you here learning
things thanks to the colleagues?

Yes.

Do you like being a mechanic?

Yes, a lot.

I should have prepared a better speech.

In three years
they never had an accident here.

Never! Not even a scratch!

As you can see there's a lot
of work pits around here.

However, they never got injured
or fell into these holes.

From the first day we taught them where
danger is and they learned it immediately.

They can avoid it.

That desire to delete Saturdays
and Sundays is very meaningful.

He deleted holidays from the beginning,
a long time ago.

He considers work time as his life, while
holidays were a waste of time for him.

Maybe that's where
his alienation problem comes from.

Some of them would like to read,
but they can't.

I don't know if it's because
of the school they attended

or it's their mentality which prevents
them from learning to read and write.

Yet I think they could be included
in a normal school with other boys

who should get to know them

and once adults will not have that distance
which we experienced in the beginning.

They need to learn how to help them
and not to make fun of them,

so that when they grow up they will not
see them as somebody to mock.

They'll not make fun
of them like kids used to do.

My last question...

Here they feel good with all of you

but not when they are outside...

They feel lonely.
- Well, it could be.

Especially for those who don't have
a normal family to go to after work.

They probably feel lonesome
when they don't work here,

away from a human voice,
from the people who talk with them.

Even ordinary people
who live alone with no family

could alienate themselves
making them lonely.

And they also prefer work
for having company.

There's something wrong.

That's a widespread situation
which involves not only our boys here.

Costanzo...

...Cesarotti...

How long have you been working here?

Three years.

I have got...

a mother

and a brother?

My gosh!

I've got my mother...

Gianpaola, Carla
and my sister-in-law Anna.

My father died.

My father's dead

and my grandfather as well, poor Pino.

They are both at the cemetery
not far from here.

Even if they don't learn to work properly,
at least they learned to stay among people.

Like that boy who,
while he was focused on work,

couldn't stand someone coming nearby and
touching him. He was trembling, shouting.

Yet look at him him now!
Taking his coffee with no problems.

Something changed in his mind.
He's more friendly than before.

When you show them sensibility
then they can feel it!

They feel relaxed.

Basically,

we can all stand this world because
human being lives collectively.

If we isolate ourselves we would die
or become some certain kind of animal.

Since it's the collectivity
which keeps us alive and lets us get ahead

they also need it.
They can't renounce it.

I would praise you
because you have helped them

even more than all those doctors,
teachers or psychotherapists.

It's not up to us to state it,
but we really saw such improvements!

Not like in Institutions or in the family.

The only thing I can assert is that when
these boys came out from Institutions

they really couldn't stand strangers.

Here they learned to do it!

Listen, workers always struggle to live.

Everybody has his own big problems.

Some more, some less...

We should question all those
private and clerical institutions,

like those nuns
who didn't let us in to film.

We should look into this.

Yes, we should. Indeed,
thanks to the new independent conduct

of the labourer's movement

those institutions are changing,

crumbling and shutting down.

This message of freedom touched
even the most enclosed institutions.

The understanding of
the condition of those many outcasts

doesn't touch only our consciousness.
It also undermines these institutions.

I know that's a difficult battle!

Since you can't shut down
institutions and asylums

with deliberation,
for God's sake!

You can't generalise.

Nothing is impossible!

We can transform
or change or destroy asylums!

You should know Parma
has its own tradition.

It was the only city
which defeats fascism

with the famous barricades made by
Guido Piceli, leader of Arditi Del Popolo.

Parma had the first peasants' battles,
known as '8 hours',

where many of them
have been killed by the police.

That was at the beginning of the century,

then later we had also the partisan fight
where Parma earned the golden medal.

Further more

Parma has sacrificed many labourers,

killed in the city's squares,
against the reactionary Scelba.

Yet this battle can be won
in other cities or regions as well.

That's the so called revolutionary fight.

If we fight here in Emilia
it's not because it's a red region

and not because we have
such a combative heritage.

It's just something which should
be developed in the whole country.

We have shut down those orphanages

and released kids from institutions
for handicapped people.

We released all those people who were
interned in asylums for 30 or 50 years.

We believe we gave a contribution
for a curative resolution

of managing those people's destiny
together with the working class

in opposition of the mass
intervention by psychoanalysis.

We're serving society's model
which we want to create

together also with
the left wing political party,

local and regional authorities,
and hopefully other regions.

We're heading for even wider questions
like preventive medicine for workers.

We want to find together with workers

the causes of illness
in the factory and fight against them,

like exploitation, assembly lines,
a harmful environment.

That's such a collective
administration of health

which interweaves
with our work in this field.

We think to change society by doing this!

Nowadays the working class
needs to acknowledge

these things to strengthen
the political fight.

They need to learn about everything!

Not only about
their exploitation's conditions,

but every isolating aspect
which concerns them and affects them.

That's our policy of solidarity.
Something which really operates

and doesn't only deal
with conferences and rallies.

I'm referring to that solidarity
which exists among villagers and peasants,

a solidarity which is almost invisible.

That's the latest civilization!

It's nothing new!

We revalue a cultural aspect
which others want to destroy.

I'll tell you what I think about
curing and healing this mass phenomenon,

concerning those people
which are not the mentally ill.

It's about making them aware
of their duty as a class.

They have to take over all these things

together with institutions,
labourer's unions

which need to worry about
the liberation of those people.

It can't be limited
just to a technical intervention

from Institutions,
which are also important to do it.

Nowadays, our doctors
from mental hospitals in Parma,

or Trieste or Perugia
or in a few more cities,

are those "technicians" who have
the trust of labourers and their unions.

the working class wants its own
"technicians" and services and reforms!

That's why they need to participate
and show solidarity!

Such is our option!

Mr Martinelli, you were telling us
about the time you entered that asylum...

That was in 1962.

It was my first experience
with asylums, my very first night.

I remember that at about 10 pm

there was this long-standing patient

who was shouting for help
to the orderly from his room.

There were three orderlies by the door
talking about sport

or their own damn business.

As if that patient had no voice,

yet I could hear him clearly
from that same distance of orderlies.

I waited for a while,
actually an hour!

Then I angrily stood up and told them:

"Don't you hear him calling?

"You wear this working suit which
represents sacrifice since it's white...

"even without that red or green cross.

"Don't you hear the patient calling you?
Don't you have a heart? Who hired you?"

They just said "Get lost!".

I could do nothing
and I went back to my bed.

That night the patient had a fever of 40!

I thought it was enough for that night,

yet at midnight I felt, during my sleep,

they were carrying me
with the bed to the corridor.

I woke up and said "Where am I?"

They distracted me by calling me
from several directions

and suddenly I felt a sheet
wrapping my head

and been beaten up!

So hard that I can't explain it!

Especially on the liver,
leaving me breathless

to not let me shout for help,
I couldn't!

I felt like the world falling apart
on me. And for what?

For telling an orderly to help
a patient who was really in need?

That's what happened when you
were trying to help another patient!

Later in the morning the doctor stated
that I was much too agitated...!

and that I was violently
squirming in the bed!

They were cowardly killers! I've been
beaten black and blue and said nothing!

Of course, I'm not the first!

I've witnessed many similar cases
which I'd like to uncover!

I would do if I'd be sure
they'll pay for the bad they've done!

How many people
did they kill there? Who knows!?

I'm sure more than one! More than 10!
More than 20 died in that way!

I survived because
those things stopped later!

Thanks to Mr Tommasini who intervened,

these bad things ceased to exist!

Yet, I had to say that's not true...

That noise of the keys
locking those 50 years old doors

is like an obsession
in the mind of patients,

to be locked up inside,
yet outside of civilisation!

If a lot has been changed,
I think much more should still be done.

I suggest that a patients' representative
should be part of a Hospital's Commission.

Like a sort of union of in-patients.

If you ask where to get them,
don't worry because even if

we are mentally ill we're ready
to throw down the gauntlet!

We are more intelligent than you all!

The hospital of Colorno
must disappear from the city of Parma!

We will open new small clinics,
one for each grade of illness!

Yet first of all Colorno must disappear!

Because it's an indelible sore
for our body and blood!

Very bad! Nobody replied!

Everybody should fart!

Come on!

Let's do it!

"One night I went to the theatre"

"It was stuffed as hell"

"We were dancing"

"A new tango"

"What a pleasure, how nice!"

Do you see? If the audience would
participate it could be a great success!

OK. That's it.

"...with mistrust and barriers.
What a nice world we had."

"Leaving such a trace.
The Hiroshima bomb."

"Yet, with faith,
with justice, with love..."

"an ancient discrepancy
will be eventually fixed"

"That's our desire and will."

"Ban war from society."

"Long live our ideal!"

"Long live a peaceful world and our work!"

"Forever without feeling bad..."

"if together we will always act!"

"Walking down the street
with a red flower in our buttonhole..."

"we'll happily sing
the anthem of the labourers!"

Look, Mr Martinelli...

How do you spend the time here?

Well, I'll tell you
step by step the time here.

At 6 o'clock you need to wake up
because of cleaning the rooms.

So unless he's a sleepyhead
who could sleep even with the light on.

the patient must wake up at that time.

Then you just wait there
wandering around for a hour and a half.

Actually at 6.30 we occasionally
go to the barbershop,

which is like a racing challenge.

We need to arrive early in the morning

because sometimes one barber
ends up having 10 patients to shave.

An overlap of patients who
just want to get rid of this dreadful cross

which is the beard.

Then one hour to wait until 7.30,

during which you have
to stay by the walls

because orderlies are cleaning floors.
Otherwise in bed.

That's why we usually go back to bed.

At 7.30 finally there's breakfast,
without sugar.

Without sugar not because of rationing,
but because we always did it like that.

Maybe because they say sugar
is bad for your body, I don't know...

We get coffee without any sugar at all!

So that's another race for the coffee,
which actually nobody drinks since its...

Almost everybody
prefers coffee from the bar.

That's why they wait until 8.15.

So at that time we go out for a coffee.

That's what I usually did
when I lived in the city.

Drinking coffee
and getting ahead until noon.

Here we are not so busy
so it's enough to get ahead until 13.30.

So then the problem is to fill up
the time from 8.30 until 11.30.

That's the problem.

There's no TV.

If you can play cards
you do it non stop like a robot.

Or you can lie in bed
in the hope of sleeping.

Because while sleeping
we can forget many things,

especially the most terrible ones
which we have the right to forget.

When we sleep we rest and relax

in order to deal better
with our own problems

and hoping for a better tomorrow.

During the first year in Colorno
I never spoke out.

I did what the old ones
where telling me to do.

Indeed, for an year and a half
I was considered like a model orderly.

Congratulating me and telling Mr Tommasini

"What a good boy we've got here!"

That was until the conference
in Parma where

I "broke free" in front of
all doctors and orderlies' heads,

plus director Basaglia
and the assessor Tommasini

who was the city
administration's representative.

That time I spoke out about the whole
internal condition in Colorno Hospital.

Some doctors left the room because

I was calling name by name
the causes of that condition

and explaining the real situation
inside the facility,

which was impossible
to hide at that point.

One needs to enter and see
what's inside the asylum and be a man!

I saw there all those similar hard things
I went through in my life,

my misfortunes and disgraces
and misadventures of my past,

which I related
to what was happening to them.

I also didn't have any support,
living in a poor family,

with the death of my father
in that Southern Italy of poverty.

We were crawling with lice
totally abandoned by the local authorities.

Once they even refused to give us food
because of an expired document.

My mother was crying
in front of her six sons.

How could I have survived in that case.
I would have turned into a basket case?

That's why I saw myself
in all the patients' faces

and felt affection for them.

I stayed there until that conference

after which I've been ignored
by all my colleagues.

In my opinion the defence
of the patient was essential and crucial,

as he's a human being
who needs to be defended

to the point of threatening to beat an
orderly when he wanted to harm a patient.

We want to know in a few words from you,

even using examples,

what was the difference between
the managing of Prof. Tommasi

and the one of Tommasini
after the student protest of 68?

We really took the plunge,

which brought a total change
in the life of the hospital.

I remember that in 1963

we worked here for a firm

which collaborated
with the administration of that time.

They were calling it Ave because it was
the name of the building of that firm.

Do you want to know how much
they paid us to tighten electrical things?

What do they call them?
Lampshades...

They were paying us 100 Lire per day.

I remember Mario Tommasini
entering with the doctor in my room

and asking me
while I was tied up in bed

"What do you think of Ave?"

I answered
"What a low salary exists in the world!"

"They pay 100 Lire per day!
How can it be?"

Then I said "What about the meals?
We don't eat good!"

"I'm here starving, tied up in bed even
during summertime with diarrhoea.

I call them for cleaning
and nobody comes!"

Then he extended his hand to me
and I noticed an almost crying glance.

Right there we were two comrades.

One in misery while the other one
just a bit out of misery, let's say.

Yet, we met on the same frontline

to fight that cruelty
the world adopted for those asylums.

Let's face it!

Take myself, a loony, yes Sir!
What's the price you pay for being a loony?

I lost my family, my sons.

What is left for me? Tommasini!

It sounds like a fairytale...
Who can give me back my smile?

Who gives me hope? Tommasini.

Yet he's working too much, too.

Like me. I've got exhausted.

My ways are what they were.
I'm not even good at singing.

When one has this background
he is marked.

It's an illusion to think that it's easy
to emerge from it. It's not, dear people!

It's hard wherever you go. Either
to reunite with family or to go to work!

In the end, I can say that presently even
in Colorno hospital you can live well!

Yet, how?

Living as a militant!

Especially being part of
the hospital committee.

It's not fair that only orderlies and doctors
have to find a solution for our problems,

neither only factory's presidents
and personnel managers...

As soon as they don't really
care about the patients,

we need to create a patient's union made
by the ones who can really speak out loud.

That's a bit of a problem...

There's me!

I've always been for fighting.

We must go to the director to say "Wait a
moment! From now you'll go on with us! ..."

"We noticed that it's a long time that
just mind your own business and not ours!

Forgetting that you all
have a job because of us!"

If they discuss patient's problems
we need to see if we agree with them.

If they really want this place to be such
an open and welcoming kind of hospital

let's start discussing few things.
For example, the locked doors.

We disagree, dear people!

How is your life after leaving
the hospital of Colorno?

Very good.

I feel very good outside.

How good is it?
- More beautiful!

It's much better to live outside
than in that place. I feel better.

How many years did you spend
in the Colorno asylum?

35 years.

How did you feel the first day
you came out after 35 years?

I looked out of the window
and I saw finally a different thing...

I feel much better out of that place.

Life was different there.

Where?

At the mental hospital of Colorno.

Let's say that
I didn't like it there very much...

all the time confined...

If you were doing something bad
an orderly would tie you up and beat you.

Some patients were tied up for so long
that they got crooked arms.

They damaged them...

They all turned into cripples
by having their arms and hands tied up.

Like that...

How did they do it?
- Strapped, like that....

How? What were they using?

Well, sometimes strapped like that,

or like that

blocking your arms with the straitjacket.

Now you live independently?

Yes, happily together.

You feel good in this neighbourhood?

Yes.

Everybody respects and likes me.

Could you tell us
how you spend the time each day?

Well, I do housework,
like cooking, cleaning

and when I'm done
I go out to take a walk in the city.

In July sometimes I go for a holiday trip...

Were they actually
curing you at that asylum?

They gave me pills, tablets.

Yet now you don't use them.
- No, I don't.

You mean that those pills had no effects?

No, pills were just
dumbing me down for a while.

How long did you remained strapped?
- For 5 years, day and night.

Day and night.

When I was born they put me in the
Parma orphanage, which now is closed.

Then I can't really remember
until six because I was too young,

later they put me in
the hands of nuns until 19,

in the Santa Maria Institution
of Villa Vogadro-Vighefio in Parma.

They were telling me that I was a puppy

because I was always sleepy
and not making the sign of the cross.

Then I picked that ranting-like from all
those other patients. I became like them.

Were they also beating you?

Yes, they were beating you with canes
if you didn't wake up to go to Mass.

Why did they send you
to the Institution and asylum?

I think I was examined by Dr. Rosselli
at the neuropsychiatric department.

I stayed there 15 days, later they sent me
to the asylum because of a lack of beds.

The doctor there actually told me the nuns
should have been hospitalized and not me.

In fact the nuns left immediately
in the presence of the doctors.

Moreover I was not an orphan
as nuns were claiming. It wasn't true!

After that examination I ended up
in the "ward of the quiet ones",

but later they put me in
the "agitated" ward where Doc. Urbani was.

It was the ward of the filthy ones.

Women strapped and foaming at the mouth,
sleeping on the floor and eating like that...

Like they showed in Trieste.

Poor women... I've seen it all.
One friend of mine, Gazola,

was always strapped and died
under the pressure of the straitjacket.

Staying all day long in those
small rooms in the "agitated" ward.

I've been strapped with
the straitjacket and the "scuffia"

I can really tell that, it's the truth.

Since I was fighting back
later they put the "scuffia" on me.

What's this "scuffia"?

It's a sheet stained with urine.

Tightened around the head

to leave you breathless,
in addition to the straitjacket.

I'm not sure how to do it.

Like that. To leave you breathless.
I even got a heart murmur.

Just like that.

To not let me breath.

So then the patient
was strapped and beaten up?

He was already strapped
with a six belts straitjacket.

If you fought back, spitting at the orderlies,
they also put the "scuffia" on you.

To keep them calm and take revenge.

Doctors agreed with that
after the orderlies' reports.

Clelia, since you're a beautiful woman

don't you think about getting married
and having a family?

Actually I have quite a lot of admirers.

I always had...

So it's long time that you feel better,

yet you've nowhere to go.

Even like this I don't feel able to leave
and face life right now.

It's something I can't do.

Yet it's a long time you've been fine...

Yes, I can't lie about it.
It's a long time...

And I always tried to keep myself busy
in the asylum without sitting on my hands,

but now I'm quite old and can't face things
like I did when I was 20 years younger.

Years roll by, you know...

Madame, you are 72 now so you don't need
to think about working to live

because when one is at that age
one needs to rest.

What if you could have a small apartment
and your own pension for living?

I mean, it's your decision to do it or not...

anyway if you could have your furnished
apartment and all you need to live

would you like to try?

No, I can't. I told them immediately.

I'm honest about it. I'm not pretending
and not afraid to say no.

I told them immediately.

How could I stand
having a house out there?

I would find myself alone and lost!

You also could be released right now

Well, I don't think so...

You don't want to either.

I tried, of course.
I've been released 4-5 times.

For 10-20 days,
but then I always came back.

Why?

I can't sleep because
I can't stand life outside.

I've got used to living here by now.
It'll be 11 years on the 17th of August!

Actually it's not about getting used it,

yet it's because I don't care any more
about that life outside!

As I know you have been
a partisan who fought in the war...

Yes! Yet, come on!
I only did it for 3 months!

Not like some others
who did it for more than a year!

I did my best!

Wouldn't you like to leave this place?

I don't feel like it any more.

I fighting here, inside. I'm a communist
and I want to die as a communist!

So basically that's the asylum's loop.

Since he said he's got used
to living here by now.

That's the evil part of Institutions!

That's the worst illness
produced by asylums!

It's an illness which destroys the life of
those people who then are afraid to leave.

When you talk about integration

it's about helping
Mr Bonzanini, Dall'Orto,

Martinelli and the lady
to take their first steps outside.

By taking them out for a walk,
a trip or to go to the cinema.

Once we brought him to his native town
to have a talk with the townsfolk.

That's how they can rediscover
an interest in life, step by step.

They can cure the asylum's illness
and heal themselves.

Take Mr. Dall'Orto, for example,
who said he doesn't want to go out.

After such an exciting event of yours
coming here to interview and motivate them

Dall'Orto in the end said that

if he could have a house and
a pension he would leave this place.

"We see a preamble of a better future"

"A brighter future for poor people"

"That's our will and our poverty"

"That's how happy
we are about our honesty"

"Walking down the street
with a red flower in our buttonhole"

"We will happily sing
the anthem of labourers!"

"Come on, men and women comrades!"

"that's our prayer"

"high as the sun of the future!"

Go on, Mario!

I want you to take you notice

that we are all proudly
the scholars of Mr. Martinelli!

You are the one
who teach us all these things!

We wish to thank all people
who make this film happen,

especially the city of Parma
and the region of Emilia-Romagna.