Director: Stijn Coninx
Cast: Matteo Simoni, Luigi Lo Cascio, Donatella Finocchiaro
Genre: Biography
Duration: 120 min.
Year: 2013
Production: Orisa Produzioni
Distributor: AZ Films
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Language: Italian
Subtitles: English
Plot
Salvatore Granata is a rather poor man who lives with his wife, son and daughter in Calabria in Italy. One day Salvatore decides to move to Belgium to work in the coal mine of Waterschei as a “gastarbeider,” an immigrant worker. His family will stay in Italy as Salvatore will only be in Belgium for three years. He hopes to earn much money in a rather small time frame so he can buy a forge for his son Rocco who is now still a 9 year old boy.
After a year, Salvatore decides his family should be with him, so they also move to Belgium. They soon discover the life of a “gastarbeider” is difficult: they have to live in some kind of barracks, they are neglected by the Belgian people and they do not earn much. They are astonished when they hear Salvatore signed a contract of five years and children of “gastarbeiders” ought to work in the mines as soon they leave high school. Rocco meets Helena, the daughter of the local grocer. However, the man is a racist and forbids his daughter to play with Italian boys.
Trama
Sud Italia, 1948. Rocco ha dieci anni quando il padre, Salvatore, decide di emigrare in Belgio per lavorare in una miniera di carbone. L’ambiente grigio della zona mineraria, i gelidi inverni, una lingua e una cultura straniera rendono, però, la nuova vita di Rocco più difficile del previsto.
Contro il volere del padre, il ragazzo cerca una via di fuga nella musica e nell’amore. Rocco seguirà il cuore e la passione per realizzare il suo sogno, diventare un musicista. Il film è ispirato alla vita del famoso musicista Rocco Granata, noto per aver composto la canzone “Marina”.
