Forever With You brings a child’s grief to its Middle East premiere
Fabrizio Cattani’s Forever With You has received its Middle East premiere at Sharjah’s festival for children and youth. Adapted from an Italian novel, the film follows a boy trying to understand his mother’s death. Cattani describes childhood and the characters around his protagonist as ways of approaching grief, with Calabria’s forests providing the setting.
Arts··Morning
A Middle East premiere for young audiences
Italian director Fabrizio Cattani’s Forever With You received its Middle East premiere in the Green Carpet programme of the 13th Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth in the United Arab Emirates. Italy is this year’s country of honour. The film had previously been presented at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. For Cattani, whose earlier work addressed difficult adult subjects, this film marks a move towards younger audiences.[1], [2]
Filo’s grief takes the form of an adventure
Adapted from an Italian novel of the same name, the film is set in 1998 and uses flashbacks to follow Filo’s attempts to understand his mother’s death. Cattani describes the people surrounding the boy as different parts of his inner world: Filo stands for reason, his friend Rullo for emotion, his father for maturity, Amelie for childhood and Guelpho for fear. He says these symbols offered him a way to approach mourning. The boy’s perspective gives particular attention to small things and their value.[1]
Calabria’s forests frame the story
The production was shot in autumn in Calabria, southern Italy, where the forests became part of the narrative. Cattani describes the setting and dialects as distinctly Italian, while arguing that losing a mother is an experience audiences elsewhere can recognise. He had wanted to discover how young viewers in the Middle East would respond. After the Sharjah screening, he says, children approached him to express their thanks and excitement. He cites Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves as an important example of Italian cinema’s use of children to explore emotional and social realities.[1]
