Improvvisamente l'inverno scorso
Luca and Gustav, two men in their 30s, have been a stable couple for eight years now. No significant news in a western European country, one would assume. One would, and wrong too. As a matter of fact, they live in Italy and it turns out there are still places out there in Euroland where the acknowledgment of Luca and Gustavs basic civil rights as a couple are an issue, and big news in fact. Suddenly, Last Winter, their quiet private life has been turned upside down. The Italian centerleft coalition in power as of March 2006, tackled the legislation concerning the rights of civil unions, including same-sex partnerships. The announcement of such plan immediately triggered a national debate. In a matter of days a spat turned into the hottest political and cultural issue on the national agenda at every level, including all media, civil society and political parties of all colours. In this context, the violence of unequivally intolerant homophobic attacks, launched daily from the pulpits and national TV talk shows, reached tones so dramatic even the less naïve among analysts and gay rights activists found worrisome. Gustav convinced Luca to look more in depth into all this, camera in hand. Its here their common journey through a sizeable portion of contemporary Italys sexual intolerance begins. The film is about what they have learned on the way, through interviews with passers-by, religious associations, conservative and liberal politicians alike, organized protests and rallies of all kinds.The films ironic approach reads through the verbose institutional impasse, the gratuitous criticism and the plain dumb arguments with increasing uneasiness. And eventually, frame after frame, the contradictory and unflattering picture of a country comes into focus. One where Luca and Gustav happen to live, somewhere in Europe.
queer