Venice (AFP)

A flurry of gunshots, blood and screams: the terrible "years of lead", which tore Italy apart in the years 1960-1980, are seen through the eyes of a child in "Padrenostro", presented Friday in competition at the Venice festival.

Rome, 1976. The life of Valerio, a shy and lonely 10-year-old boy, is turned upside down when he and his mother witness an assassination attempt against his father Alfonso, a senior official, by a far-left group.

Even if Alfonso, played by Pierfrancesco Favino ("The traitor" by Marco Bellocchio), survives, his family so far without stories leaves weakened from this event, which has insidiously shaken their relationship.

If the Roman director Claudio Noce, 46, chose to adopt Valerio's point of view, it is because this film is inspired by his own story: his father, prefect, was also the target of a attack when the peninsula was the scene of bomb attacks perpetrated by the extreme right and kidnappings and assassinations claimed by extreme left formations like the Red Brigades.

Telling this intimate story was "a long and painful journey", confides the filmmaker, because it "had been erased within our family for years".

Through "Padrenostro" ("Our Father" in French), he wanted to give a place to "this generation which suffered and bathed in these events", to "these children who once in bed no longer existed when 'they were listening behind the doors ".

- "Invisible children" -

The real protagonist is therefore little Valerio, played by a Mattia Garaci with the false air of Macaulay Culkin, the child-star of "Mum, I missed the plane".

His meeting with a cheeky and mischievous 14-year-old, Christian, will help him gradually overcome his trauma.

"Padrenostro" is not a political manifesto, but, according to Mr. Noce, rather "a film of pacification for this generation which suffered these events" while growing up in the 1970s.

As Pierfrancesco Favino, born himself in 1969, sums it up, "this generation of + educated silent + did not participate in historical events and were put in a corner".

Through Valerio, Claudio Noce finally wanted to give a voice to this "generation of children + invisible + drowned in the cloud of smoke from adult cigarettes".

Beyond its political dimension, "Padrenostro" does not escape the nostalgic accents of this Italy of the economic boom converted to the consumer society and rocked by the songs of Lucio Battisti.

The filmmaker's love for Rome, his city, transpires with each image, with the dome of Saint Peter as an eternal landmark.

Calabria, a splendid but poor region in southern Italy, can be seen as a full character in the film, a sort of counterpoint to Rome to highlight this two-speed peninsula torn between past and future.

Another central character, fear, which infiltrates and destroys everything in its path.

"How to face fear? Through words and dialogue", explains Pierfrancesco Favino, also producer of the film.

"Valerio confronts him and succeeds, as the saying goes, to cross to the other side of the river while growing up".

"Padrenostro", lasting two hours, is released at the end of September in Italy.

© 2020 AFP