PORTUALI

Italy | 2024 | 81 min | col.

A group of Genoa harbour’s workers have gathered in an autonomous collective, C.A.L.P. (Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali). During their meetings, they discuss how difficult it is to interact with their union when it comes to reporting the passage of boats carrying armaments and explosives bound for war zones, while they also reason on the need of networking and of including an intersectional approach in their political actions. In Portuali we see the dock workers’ job and the world of trade unions, including the different possibilities of militance, from inside, laying the ground for a new narrative of class struggle. Film director Perla Sardella constructs her film departing from the collective dimension, using film language as a listening device: the close-ups in the scenes shot during the meetings, reminiscent of certain moments of the cinema of Ken Loach, and the use of archive footage place work and conflict – considered as prime movers of history – at centre stage again. (a.d.)