Umarells – We Know Better

The film is a comedy about working-class men born in Italy during World War II, about their values, worldview, and fading memories. Alongside their stories, a retired historian traces the course of the bombings of Bologna, the reconstruction, and the emergence of a new social class connecting the stories of umarells to archival material by listening to echoes of the past on his small pocket radio.

The construction of the tramline interests umarells. It leads toward the menacingly leaning medieval towers — even mentioned in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” — threaten to collapse onto the townspeople. The repair of the towers unfolds into an allegorical tale of humanity’s quest for immortality by resisting the ravages of nature and time.

Umarells, accustomed to physical labor, now need to learn to spend the permitted time of idleness and fill twenty, thirty, or even forty years of freedom.

As people age, they move from the center of the game to the sidelines. Construction fences separate the umarells — who have become “useless” observers — from the “useful” construction workers, but at the same time, old age means freedom: they are not afraid of losing their jobs, their status, or their finances.