Gates of smoke
Director Francesco Bussalai
Countries
Duration 39 min
Synopsis
Beppe goes round with a stick, even though he perfectly walks. Tonino weights 120 kilos but he is still nimble. A shuttered, abandoned cigarette factory right in the city centre. Their factory. The place they have worked in for 20 years. One night they climb over the gate and walk around the yards, the huge empty halls, the years when thousands 16-year-old girls made cigars by hand. A life within walls and gates, marked by the siren sound. A world difficult to enter, where the workers were searched every time they went out. An island inside the city, a special factory with special workers who, instead of hating their prison, fell in love with it. Finally the images of the work, the struggles, the strikes, until the closure. Images that intertwine with those of Beppe and his white stick.
Beppe goes round with a stick, even though he perfectly walks. Tonino weights 120 kilos but he is still nimble. A shuttered, abandoned cigarette factory right in the city centre. Their factory. The place they have worked in for 20 years. One night they climb over the gate and walk around the yards, the huge empty halls, the years when thousands 16-year-old girls made cigars by hand. A life within walls and gates, marked by the siren sound. A world difficult to enter, where the workers were searched every time they went out. An island inside the city, a special factory with special workers who, instead of hating their prison, fell in love with it. Finally the images of the work, the struggles, the strikes, until the closure. Images that intertwine with those of Beppe and his white stick.