“Everything Asks for Salvation”, Return from the Black Holes of Mental Illness (Degree 7½)

Under this poetic title hides a gritty series that examines the personal relationships of a group of patients subject to TSO, compulsory medical treatment. This is not to be crazy, but to desperately need some form of psychological equilibrium that has disappeared, a voucher to our neuroses but above all to our sensitivity. The work of Francesco Bruni, 7 episodes on Netflix based on the novel by Daniele Mincarelli that won the Premio Strega Giovanni award, is an excellent team work, also meaning Italian cinema that has dealt with the boundaries between normality and madness, starting with the director’s “Matte da Sligare”. Bellocchio, Rulli, Agosti and Petraglia, up to the American summit “Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Pazza Gioia” by Virzì, to whom Bruni was often an assistant.

The series thrives on her emotional independence and social especially when he is among the six guests in the dorm where he “serves” the sentence of spending a week in the hospital for crossing the boundaries of everyday life’s psychopathology. In particular, our reference is the passionate young Daniele (Federico Cesari made him credible every minute, even in his doubts and his future) who finds himself after a crisis living with five guests in the psychiatric ward of a clinic where doctors and nurses apply fairly strict rules, Although it will turn out that it is possible to circumvent them. Director and screenwriter often young and young adult detective (one for all, “Scialla!”), Bruni manages well the game of not-so-simple relationships between people who are often repressed by conscious or unconscious pain and who don’t know each other.

There is Mario (Andrea Benacchi, one of the best) A depressed primary teacher who seems to find the bird’s nest ahead enough to find hope again, there’s Gianluca, a homosexual persecuted by his military father (Vincenzo Crea, very good) drawn in by Daniel, who instead has an elopement with a ward girl at her side, Nina, the altruist who attempted suicide (Fotinì Peluso), the least interesting and most popular part of the whole story that covers a particular week of life. Then there’s the Madonna, her eyes hidden by a black haze says the novel (Vincenzo Nemolato), a neurotic, almost comical mystic, Alessandro (Alessandro Pacioni) who lies in a coma after an accident and finally, the last arrival, Giorgio, obviously an XL (Lorenzo Renzi) He is most dangerous because of his size and also because of his confused state of mind.

Back and forth from black holes to mental illnessThe guests talk as much as they can, an alliance is formed between Daniele, who is leaving after risking a double sentence, and Mario, who is sadly cut short by a tragic event, while in “real” life the families of these patients are caring for, little do they plan for their loved ones. The terrain of madness is too slippery for a person, and Bruni sometimes risks slipping into the sentimentality of the facade, while managing to get convinced in the graph of the motives of hatred and love between those people who have to drive out the evil of living, and come to terms with themselves. Ghosts also try to enter the privacy of others. Thanks to its cast, the mixture manages to incorporate many statements, it transcends in moments of suspense, when doctors risk their lives, when a sentimental attempt makes its way, while in those circumstances the banality of everyday life is either very well expressed or only suggested by small annotations of a science Petty self in the dormitory.

He also ordered the hospital’s guardians department, who rummage through but not so much in the confusion of their guests’ minds, apart from some conventions, it works and earns ward nurse Ricky Memphis the palm for the compassionate human effect he incorporates into the character’s common sense. True to the novel, the series dictates the point of view and the life of Daniel, who will likely stay with us also because he is the young man, who has the vital strength to try to start over and promise everything right away even when relations with the family do become complicated and generate a mixture of sensations between drama and comedy.