Quote:
Sacro GRA is a 2013 documentary directed by Gianfranco Rosi.
The documentary engaged Rosi for two years for the shooting and about eight months for editing.

The work was presented at the 70th Venice International Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion for Best Film, the first documentary to win the top award in the seventy years of history of the Venice Film Festival.

The film documents, without outside comment or interviews of any kind, real-life scenes that take place along the “Grande Raccordo Anulare” (the GRA of the title), the ring highway around Rome.

Roberto is a stretcher bearer on an ambulance of the emergency service and therefore often spends the night rescuing victims of road accidents. He lives alone and sometimes converses in video-chat with a girlfriend. He has a tender relationship with his elderly sick mother.

Francesco is a botanist. We see him intent to defend an oasis of palm trees from the attack of the red palm weevil, a deadly parasite beetle that destroys the plants from the inside. The meticulousness with which he monitors the area, plant by plant, thanks to a digital recorder with which he detects the presence of parasites in the trunk of the palm trees, seem to suggest that the fight against the insect represents for him a real mission.

Filippo is a former prince who lives, together with his young wife Ksenia and their daughter Anastasia, in a sumptuous palace in the Boccea district that he rents for conferences, fashion shows, as bed and breakfasts and as location for picture stories. The huge house, furnished in a rather showy and eccentric way, even contains a small theater. During a break from shooting a picture story, the old actor Gaetano gives a sort of “life lesson” to a young female colleague.

Cesare is one of the few still remaining eel fishermen on the Tiber. He lives in a huge raft on the river, just under a viaduct of the GRA, together with his Ukrainian girlfriend.
Paolo is a former nobleman from Turin, with a long beard and a very polished talk, who – for reasons unknown to the viewer – now lives with his daughter Amelia, who’s preparing for a degree, in a studio apartment in a cold and anonymous tenement situated on a hill, occasionally overflown by airliners at low altitude. From his own voice we learn that from the window of the house you can enjoy the view of the dome of St. Peter.

In the same building, that the director always shoots from the outside and with the same frame fixed on each apartment, lives among others a South American family, whose young son dabbles with deejay equipment.

The in-depth analysis of the above mentioned “main characters” is accompanied by interlocutory shorter episodes, including: a group of prostitutes parked on the roadside in a dilapidated camper, a couple of young “cubist” girls that gladdens the sight of customers in a kiosk bar, a gathering of devotees attending a “apparition of the Virgin” and, in the Flaminio Cemetery at Prima Porta, the operations of disposal of old corpses destined to a mass grave not too far from the ring road.
(Wikipedia)

Sacro GRA (2013).mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 35mn
Size: 	2.79 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	960x718 ~> 1276x718
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 736 Kbps
BPP: 	0.226
Audio
#1:  	Italian 5.1ch AC-3 @ 384 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/9500C6F6794E556/Sacro_GRA_(2013).mkv
https://nitro.download/view/C39BAB2A763EC81/Sacro_GRA_(2013).eng.srt
https://nitro.download/view/1C49E8B04D6D678/Sacro_GRA_(2013).ita.srt

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:English, Italian

The post Gianfranco Rosi – Sacro GRA (2013) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Naples faces dual volcanic threats from Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei. Amid increasing tremors, archaeologists work as residents live anxiously, haunted by Pompeii’s fate while emergency services strain.

Sotto.le.nuvole.1080p.TIM.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-cinepth.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 54mn
Size:	5.86 GiB
Video
Codec:	h264
Resolution:	1920x1080
Aspect ratio:	16:9
Frame rate:	25.000 fps
Bit rate:	7 000 kb/s
Audio
Italian 5.1ch E-AC-3 @ 400 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/9C4FD3E2AB7A9C6/Sotto.le.nuvole.1080p.TIM.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-cinepth.mkv

Language(s):Italian, Arabic, Japanese, Neapolitan, English
Subtitles:Hardcoded Italian subs for non-Italian parts

The post Gianfranco Rosi – Sotto le nuvole AKA Pompei: Below the Clouds (2025) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

imdb wrote:
In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on his most important issues: poverty, migration, the environment, solidarity and war. Intrigued by the fact that two of Francis’s trips – the first to the refugees landing in Lampedusa; the second in 2021 to the Middle East – so closely mirrored the itineraries of his films Fuocoammare (Fire At Sea, 2016) and Notturno (2020), Rosi follows the Pope’s Stations of the Cross. He sees what he sees, hears what he says and creates a dialogue between archival footage of Francis’ travels, images taken by Rosi himself, recent history and the state of the world today.

In.Viaggio.The.Travels.of.Pope.Francis.2022.720p.HULU.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-GINO.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 23mn
Size:	1.74 GiB
Video
Codec:	h264
Resolution:	1280x720
Aspect ratio:	16:9
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	2 741 kb/s
Audio
Italian 5.1ch E-AC-3 @ 256 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/6CB70A7C3730FCA/In.Viaggio.The.Travels.of.Pope.Francis.2022.720p.HULU.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-GINO.mkv

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:English

The post Gianfranco Rosi – In viaggio AKA In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis (2022) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

During a five year period an Italian filmmaker documents the world of down-on-their-luck individuals who live in a Californian desert trying to get by one day at a time. None of them has more than a vehicle, a dog and some clothes.

Bellow.Sea.Level.2008.576p.Bluray.AAC.x264-LAA.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 57 min
Size: 	1.88 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x552 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	2 078 kb/s
BPP: 	0.153
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AAC @ 204 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/A162C25F129FB04/Bellow.Sea.Level.2008.576p.Bluray.AAC.x264-LAA.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Gianfranco Rosi – Below Sea Level (2008) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Even if they were bringing the bodies of dead migrants ashore a few minutes from where you live, you’d still brew up coffee and cook dinner with the radio on. Your kids would still do their homework and get to school in the morning. Life would go on – not necessarily oblivious to the crisis unfolding on your doorstep, but existing at some remove from it. That’s the troubling situation revealed in documentarian Gianfranco Rosi’s portrait of the current migrant crisis as visited upon the tiny island of Lampedusa, a little corner of Italy whose proximity to north Africa has made it the first European port of call for some 400,000 migrants in the past 20 years.

Rosi’s ever-patient camera captures the valiant work of the Italian coastguard in intercepting the little boats laden with hundreds of men, women and children who’ve braved this perilous passage, not all of whom make it to shore alive. The film records the evident distress of those largely African migrants who’ve suffered barely imaginable privations along the way, while also registering the careworn response of the island’s only resident doctor, whose profound humanitarian sense of duty has left him haunted by the horrors he’s seen.

At the same time, though, Lampedusa’s fishermen mend their nets, the local radio station churns out a steady flow of sentimental ditties, a grandmother tends house with absolute devotion, and a young boy named Samuele takes great delight in aiming his catapult at the tiny birdlife in the rugged countryside. On the face of it, these folk share little sense of connection to the global tragedy unfolding close by. As Rosi’s film bears witness, the issue isn’t even one of compassion, it’s more a question of an expanded consciousness from which compassion, and perhaps even political engagement, might spring.

Considering the fairly ample newspaper and TV coverage given to the migrant crisis occurring at various points in the Mediterranean, it would be easy to presume that Fire at Sea is telling what’s by now a sadly familiar story, but Rosi’s whole aesthetic operates in a way that’s quite different from reportage’s information-driven approach. For him, the key to entering the lives of others lies in making time to take in their environment, whether that’s the Rome ring road in Sacro GRA (2013), the River Ganges in Boatman (1993), a forgotten corner of the Californian desert in Below Sea Level (2008) or even the microcosm of an anonymous hotel in El Sicario, Room 164 (2010). Here, he’s fascinated by the parched, rocky terrain of Lampedusa, its mazy trees, empty village streets and the ever-changing seascape enveloping it – all laid out calm, composed frames.

He doesn’t make a fetish of shot duration in the slow-cinema manner, yet his film allows the contours of contrasting lives to emerge from these surroundings: he accompanies local boy Samuele (typically, it’s more than half an hour before we even learn his name) and his trusty catapult out into the scrub, but also follows the rescue process, from desperate radio message to naval interception, retrieval and on-shore reception of myriad dehydrated and exhausted migrants. There’s a certain reserve to all of this, since Rosi is not one to stick a microphone in anyone’s face. Indeed, there are only a handful of moments when the participants address him behind the camera, so even though we’re obviously watching a construct, there’s less a sense of a news story being hunted, gathered and pieced together for maximum emotional impact than an impression that we’re an invisible observer of events that would be happening in exactly the same way were Rosi’s camera not there.

For that reason, some viewers may find the film slightly frustrating, and be eager to know more about the individual stories behind the haunted looks of the migrants rescued just in time, and possibly rather less about the somewhat horrid little Italian scamp who takes such delight in firing an imaginary machine gun and making noises to match. There may be those who find the portrayal of the migrants somewhat depersonalised, that the footage of these huddled masses being shuttled hither and thither makes them seem anonymous and thus unknowable.

In which case, it’s instructive to recall a key moment in Rosi’s filmography, in Below Sea Level, his portrait of a community of misfits living off-grid in the wilds of California. In that film, the laidback resident of a converted school bus recounts the discretion with which he treats his neighbours: he doesn’t ask questions, and allows contact to proceed at its own pace, because essentially, he says, “Everyone has their own private stuff going on.”

That’s an attitude you’ll see played out throughout Rosi’s work; the fact that he acts as a one-man crew and develops trust with his subjects makes each film about whatever those subjects choose to give of themselves, rather than what Rosi can take from them. The extraordinary confessional that is El Sicario, Room 164 – Rosi’s encounter with a Mexican cartel henchman and his blood-soaked past deeds – is an obvious case in point, but just as remarkable here is Rosi being allowed to eavesdrop on a prayer meeting at which a group of African migrants give thanks for their deliverance. As one of their number narrates the saga of their harrowing journey from Nigeria, his fellows sustain a rising and falling gospel chorus that supports his need to speak and own what they’ve all been through.

One can’t fail to be moved by the sheer resilience of these migrants, yet at the same time it’s very clear how far removed their experiences are from the daily lives of most Western viewers. Rosi has absolute respect for his subjects, even when we see them here at their most vulnerable, in states of physical and emotional disarray, and he makes no pretence that pointing a camera at them will magically allow us to bridge that gulf of consciousness between them and us. Indeed, from his first featurette Boatman onwards, the challenge of finding a meaningful connection between audience and subject has been his overriding theme, taken to an extreme in El Sicario, and played out in Fire at Sea in the way the Lampedusa locals’ daily round is utterly untroubled by the traumas of the ongoing crisis happening nearby.

What we see of the dedicated work of the coastguard and the Italian authorities suggests no lack of compassion and commitment among those on the frontline – the testimony of Lampedusa’s only GP proving particularly affecting – and although Rosi is not specifically accusing of Samuele and his presumably typical family, their unruffled presence in so much of the film effectively prompts the viewer to question their own attitudes and ponder whether their own consciousness might expand its horizons. It’s mere chance that in the course of filming Samuele is treated for a lazy left eye, but the pointed significance of his partial sight not passing images to the brain is metaphorically spot-on and thought-provoking.

Overall, Fire at Sea is a genuine triumph for Rosi, its distinctive formal strategy respectful of its subjects and offering a perfect expressive conduit for the director’s characteristic musing on how film might bring points of contact between seemingly distant poles of human experience. It may not grab you by the lapels and preach to you, but its quiet intensity ultimately offers more satisfying rewards, exquisitely enhanced by Rosi’s painterly eye for Lampedusa’s magical vistas of land and sea.

At its culmination, Rosi’s film enters the heart of darkness, confronting the utter horror of the migrants’ seaborne sufferings, a harrowing moment followed by a beauteous image of light playing on silvery waves, truly a pillow shot for the ages. Moral courage and filmic artistry exist side by side in this essential offering from a director gradually earning the right to be thought of as one of the greats of our era.

http://nitroflare.com/view/ACA378C9BD87D10/Gianfranco_Rosi_-_%282016%29_Fire_at_Sea.mkv

Language(s):Italian, English
Subtitles:English, Italian

The post Gianfranco Rosi – Fuocoammare (2016) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Storyline
Situated some 200km off Italy’s southern coast, Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants hoping to make a new life in Europe. Rosi spent months living on the Mediterranean island, capturing its history, culture and the current everyday reality of its 6,000-strong local population as hundreds of migrants land on its shores on a weekly basis. The resulting documentary focuses on 12-year-old Samuele, a local boy who loves to hunt with his slingshot and spend time on land even though he hails from a culture steeped in the sea.

http://nitroflare.com/view/D5515B2CD669595/fire.at.sea.2016.720p.bluray.x264-bipolar.mkv

Language(s):Italian, English
Subtitles:English

The post Gianfranco Rosi – Fuocoammare (2016) first appeared on Cinema of the World.