DALLA PARTE SBAGLIATA

Italy | 2023 | 80 min

A group of former classmates reunite after 40 years. They survived a tragic motorway accident in April 1983, when a bus carrying two classes from the Naples middle school Nicolardi on a school trip to Lake Garda crashed against a truck driving in the opposite direction in a tunnel near Florence. There were eleven 13-year-old victims and more than twenty wounded, but those who are still alive are maimed nonetheless. Luca Miniero, hailing from the same neighbourhood as the then schoolchildren, has directed his first documentary with deep empathy, approaching those who were there and lost their friends in the tragic accident as well as the mothers whose children never came back. Unlike so many present-day news stories, this film does not exploit the grief of people, exploring instead the injustice of miracles and the possibility of healing each other’s wounds. (a.s.)