Strictly Reserved Trains

Emanuele Scaringi

Italy

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Synopsis

Every day, the same people get on the same busy and dirty train to reach Rome. Some are ashamed, some can't stand the situation, and some prefer to take a free ride.

REVIEW

Shortly after the election of a right-wing (some would say neofascist) government last spring on a platform of "security," Italy's parliament did two things that should have made democratically inclined people everywhere shudder.  First, it sent soldiers into the streets of suburban Rome to bolster citizen vigilante groups bent on maintaining "security" in the face of a growing immigrant population.  Second, it passed a law requiring all residents of Romi (gypsy) descent to be fingerprinted-even those who are Italian citizens. 

In such a climate, we find a ray of hope in this little fable, which pits "traditional" Italians against newcomer/outsider "gypsies" in a train car where every seat is reserved.  Suddenly, a terrorism-related jest banishes all the clichéd prejudices that sustain fear and enmity, and this bunch of travelers transforms into a new community. A quote about the value of difference from Italy's only out gay poet of the past century, Sandro Penna, sums up the moral.  This is a lovely short film, and a deep one.

-Beverly Allen