Free to work (2018)

The first article of the Italian Constitution says: "Italy is a democratic Republic founded on labour". Yet what happens when citizens's identity when have to leave, because that work is precisely missing? Labour migrants coming from abroad are always more than just their profession: they are not the "engineer", but the "Italian engineer". And so paradoxically, their italianness is reaffirmed precisely through that work that is missing back home. 'Free to work" retraces what remains of the work that people did, how it is inscribed in their bodies and stuck in their memories. Meet Massimo, Antonio, Maurizio, Paola and many others: nine Italian migrants, all individually interviewed in a grey studio, each one recalling and repeating, as in a theatrical happening, words and gestures of their past jobs. While different temporalities and tones merge, tapping into the humor, poetry and monotony of repetitive mundane activities, these individual stories retrace the transition from manual and material labour to immaterial work.