Synopsis
On December 19, 2019, Elisa Bravi was killed in Glorie, near Ravenna, by her husband Riccardo, in front of their two daughters. He was 31 years old. Five years later - today - nine students aged 16 to 18 are getting ready, in soul and word, to meet Antonella, Elisa's mother. They meet her in a sacred place, the Classense Library in Ravenna, where words have the weight of hundreds of thousands of voices, books, studies, stories. They are not there to interview her, but to exchange promises. Young people are "the promises": that in the near future, theirs, no woman will ever again be killed because she is a woman. The young people make a promise: each his own, in the face of the truth of a mother who has lost her daughter. A promise that will have to be kept.
In-depth analysis
The story of Elisa Bravi is that of a girl from Romagna, a student of a Technical Institute, who dreams of establishing herself thanks to her studies, and succeeds. It is precisely her professional success, her freedom to choose who to be and what to do, that first unleashes envy and jealousy, then the murderous violence of her husband, one night in December 5 years ago.
Elisa was a young woman grateful to life, gratified by her work and careful to combine it with care for her family, for the man she loved and for their two daughters.
Elisa Bravi's femicide is therefore a tragedy that addresses many of the forms of gender discrimination rooted in our culture, and such as to condition the fate of everyone, women certainly, but also men. To enter the folds of the cultural mindset that leads to this savagery is a daunting task. But that of Elisa, a former student of a technician, a career professional, a girl from Emilia-Romagna, is also a tragedy in which the students of the ITE Salvemini in Casalecchio can feel involved.
Very young, they already have to find the courage and arguments to confront a mother who was the first witness of the murderous violence of a man on a woman who was his daughter. A witness who is also a victim, as victims are Antonella's granddaughters now entrusted to her, Elisa's daughters. These nine students must prepare, study the specific case and the phenomenon in its dramatic amplitude, practice. The preparatory working table includes several appointments and produces an apparatus of video-insights by the four young people involved: 7 exercises to find words (out of https://sites.google.com/view/2511salvemini). The five girls, on the other hand, have to narrate Elisa's story on video, with the rigor of the news, with the empathy of a schoolmate (and the narration is included in the film, as a prologue). But that's not all. The nine must imagine, as far as possible, what will happen during that single meeting, documented by the cameras. There is no possibility of a second take: everything is true. The trip to Ravenna does not end in an interview but in a spontaneous dialogue: it will be Elisa Bravi's mother who will ask the students to account, first of all, for the behaviors they intend to adopt to fight, in fact, discrimination and gender-based violence. Gioele, Kabira, Sara, Madalina, Rayan, Charlize, Eleonora, Leonardo, Alessandro, each write a letter to Elisa's mother, and she answers. In this way, even before meeting, they establish a bond that will make the dialogue more intimate, the heart stronger, the courage to expose themselves.
Credits
Director: Massimiliano Briarava
Running time: 43'43"
Year: 2024
Genre: docufilm
Workshop, subject, direction, editing: Massimiliano Briarava
Initiative and coordination: Alessandra Regina
with students Madalina Camerzan, Sara Cristoni, Lekbira Oueld Laaboura, Alessandro Longhi, Leonardo Querci, Rayan Ben Salem, Gioele Sandri, Eleonora Schiassi, Charlize Shaw and the participation of Antonella Mescolini
Filmed in the halls of the Classense library in Ravenna and in the classrooms of the ITE Salvemini in Casalecchio di Reno
Rooms: Jacopo Renzi, Giacomo Trippa, Massimiliano Briarava
Music: Paolo Estorm
The song "The Power of Goodbye" (Madonna, Rick Nowels) is rearranged by Paolo Estorm and sung by Giulia Palmieri, Salvemini 2022 graduate
Project carried out within the ECCO! of the Metropolitan City of Bologna