Terra di mezzo

The immigrants are the protagonists of this film. The street, cars, and bar-gaining are some of the principal features that mark this trilogy, which is at first set in the country near Rome and then inside the city. The very first shots make us notice the separation between the people who are inside the cars and the people who are outside. Some Nigerian prostitutes spend their days sitting on wornout sofas and easy-chairs on side of a street. Albanian boys are recruited to do all types of jobs. At night an Egyptian man fills up his tank with gasoline at a self service gas station illegally. The three episodes which make up Terra di Mezzo are three short scenes from life that fit into each other and repeat a single theme: a choral metropol-itan fresco whose characters are only allowed to speak a few lines. (Matteo Garrone)