“Il Bene Comune” arrives in cinemas on Thursday 12 March, the new film by Rocco Papaleo, a choral comedy in which the public will recognize some of the elements that characterize the filmography of the director who, in this case too, also plays the part of the protagonist, playing the character of Biagio, tour guide and athletic trainer of his nephew, who guides visitors to discover the wonders of the Pollino Park. The protagonist with him is Vanessa Scalera in the role of Raffaella. Also in the cast are Claudia Pandolfi (the tormented Maddalena), Teresa Saponangelo (Gudrun), Andrea Fuorto (Biagio’s nephew), Livia Ferri (Fiammetta) and Rosanna Sparapano (Anny).

“The Common Good”: the plot

Biagio is a former athlete who now makes ends meet as a tour guide in the Pollino Park and in his free time trains his nephew Luciano who, like him, has a passion for running. One day Raffaella, an actress who has never become famous, who lives life day by day and holds a sensorial theater workshop for prisoners serving their sentences, contacts him. For his “girls”, Maddalena, Gudrun, Fiammetta and Anny, all with a complicated past, broken by life, he wants to organize a trip into nature and, for this reason, he turns to Biagio, ready to accompany them on an excursion to the point in the park where the Loricato Pine stands, a tree that grows and lives in prohibitive conditions, a bit like fate decided that it would happen to them: a symbol and an example of resilience. The excursion will soon reveal itself to be a journey into the stories of these women: each will find a way to tell their story and, above all, to finally be heard, giving rise to an unexpected solidarity capable of also transforming into concrete gestures of help and difficult choices.

The common good, the interview with Rocco Papaleo and the cast: “Showing yourself imperfect is the real revolution”

Papaleo’s new comedy between reflection and suggestions

“Each of us has a beautiful story to tell” reflects Biagio, Rocco Papapleo’s character in “Il Bene Comune”, it would have to be said that not everyone always has a beautiful story behind them, but even with so-so stories, or with difficult and uncomfortable stories like those of the prisoners at the center of his film, it is essential to come to terms with them, and it is also essential to be able to share them with someone who knows how to understand, because perhaps he too has a difficult story behind him.

To tell this truth, Papaleo brings a group of women with broken lives to the breathtaking beauty of the Pollino park, in the midst of a nature that is a mother, but also a teacher. The final destination of the eventful excursion is in fact a visit to the legendary Loricato Pine, a tree capable of being born, growing and living in extreme situations, a symbol of resistance and stubborn propensity for life to which it clings with all its strength and deploying all its resources, despite everything.

This is what Maddalena, Gudrun, Fiammetta and Anny do, even unconsciously, four women with complicated lives, who have made mistakes, but who, by telling their stories and sharing each other’s suffering, manage to find solidarity and understanding from their companions. And they manage to do so also thanks to the initiative of Raffaella, who is ramshackle, stubborn and a bit idealistic, who takes life as it comes, but immerses herself in it with all her being, and to the guidance of Biagio who, after all, is also a defeated and disenchanted person, but who will also return refreshed from an excursion which will prove to be a journey of self-discovery, obviously accompanied by the music which, in Papaleo’s films, can never be missing, and also by a scenic invention that accompanies the stories of the various characters, recalling the Greek theater and inserting another suggestion of connection with the territory, harsh and wonderful, in which the film is set and shot which is another great protagonist of “The Common Good”.

A comedy that invites reflection, with some passages perhaps a little confusing, but with a precious message, in which the Common Good seems above all to be the care and mutual listening of those around us, who by helping the single individual, multiplied by all of us, would help the whole of humanity.

Rating: 7

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