An uncompromising and disturbing film, from one of Italian cinema’s most controversial directors
Emigration, factory work, the disenchantment of youth and the downward spiral of drugs, in a film that doesn’t look for easy answers or solutions
Pasquale Squitieri has never been one for simple answers. Perhaps that’s why his cinema has always been the subject of controversy. Razza selvaggia is no exception. The film deals with some explosive themes: emigration from Southern Italy to Northern Italy and the problems of integration in an urban landscape that remains unwelcoming; factory work as a cause of existential depression and the end of worker solidarity; the disenchantment of youth and the annihilation of ideals; the delusion of wealth gained by any means and its meaningless consumption; the downward spiral of drugs, with death being an almost inevitable destination. Squitieri does not absolve anyone, he doesn’t supply any reassuring answers, he doesn’t fall back on sociological readings and political theories to put forth a thesis. With the feel of a detective film and the unrelenting rhythms of percussionist Tullio De Piscopo, Razza selvaggia is, by choice, a film allergic to compromise that aims to disturb.
Mario, a native of Salerno, works in a factory in Turin. But the life he leads doesn’t satisfy him. He meets a shady nightclub manager and enters into a dangerous world of drugs and criminality.
An uncompromising and disturbing film, from one of Italian cinema’s most controversial directors
Emigration, factory work, the disenchantment of youth and the downward spiral of drugs, in a film that doesn’t look for easy answers or solutions
Pasquale Squitieri has never been one for simple answers. Perhaps that’s why his cinema has always been the subject of controversy. Razza selvaggia is no exception. The film deals with some explosive themes: emigration from Southern Italy to Northern Italy and the problems of integration in an urban landscape that remains unwelcoming; factory work as a cause of existential depression and the end of worker solidarity; the disenchantment of youth and the annihilation of ideals; the delusion of wealth gained by any means and its meaningless consumption; the downward spiral of drugs, with death being an almost inevitable destination. Squitieri does not absolve anyone, he doesn’t supply any reassuring answers, he doesn’t fall back on sociological readings and political theories to put forth a thesis. With the feel of a detective film and the unrelenting rhythms of percussionist Tullio De Piscopo, Razza selvaggia is, by choice, a film allergic to compromise that aims to disturb.
Mario, a native of Salerno, works in a factory in Turin. But the life he leads doesn’t satisfy him. He meets a shady nightclub manager and enters into a dangerous world of drugs and criminality.
