There were years when the Venice Film Festival dreamed of. They were told great love stories, we traveled in space, you imagined life in science fiction universes, we were even laughing. Today, the Venetian Festival no longer has much space for dreams.

It is reality to dominate the scene, she is the true protagonist of the stories of Venice 82. It is clear, with strength, in all the films in competition, shows everyone her cruelty, her uncontrollable decline leaving the bitterness and resignation that fear is the only feeling that we are destined to experience in this historical moment. And not even the cinema seems more to have the strength to dream.

Putin, Gaza, conspiracy, nuclear, killers: what we talked about in Venice 82

There is a theme that has united most of the films in competition in Venice82 and is that of fear. Once again the cinema translates into images the deepest thoughts of a contemporaneity that seems to not find space for a feeling other than terror, from the resignation that things cannot go better than that.

In Venice82, in fact, there was talk of war with “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, the film about Gaza that we can consider the real manifesto of this edition of the Festival. A lacerating, moving and dramatically realistic story that has managed to touch everyone’s heart and is destined to take home, deservedly, the golden lion.

But in addition to the conflict in Gaza, in this event there was also talk of Russia, power, the dark sides of communication with “The Wizard of Kremlin” by Olivier Assayas, a film with Jude Law in the role of Putin inspired by the novel of the same name by Giuliano da Empoli.

The nuclear button with Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” was touched, who put us in front of the chilling hypothesis of a possible nuclear war and there was talk of true stories by Assassini with “Elisa” by Leonardo di Costanzo and the series on the monster of Florence by Stefano Sollima who showed how much the evil is trivial and much closer to us.

Guillermo del Toro reminded us, with his Frankesin, how much the fear of the different leads to death and destruction and Yorgos Lanthimos, with his brilliant “bugonia” showed us the danger of a conspiracy thought and the possibility of an alien invasion on Earth.

Fear, fear, fear. But what happened to the dream?

What happened to the dream?

Perhaps, the time has not yet come. Perhaps, of these, we will speak only when the world has returned to a state of serenity such that being able to dream, allowing itself the luxury of lightness, will be simpler and more natural both in real life and in the cinema.

After all, we live in difficult times and we cannot expect that cinema will have the light -heartedness of making us laugh, talking about love, fantasizing, at least for now.

But if on the one hand we understand what pushes directors and actors to devote themselves to the only representation of reality, on the other hand we think that art has the power to beat this reality, or at least try.

And if the cinema does not make it to imagine a better world, that reality can model it to its liking, how can the reality that does not have this power can do it?