In 2003 the director Aureliano Amadei was a young ant-war activist who was invited by his mentor/teacher Steffano Rolla the filmmaker to go to Iraq in the company of a battalion of Italian solders to help make a movie. Whilst he was there he was got caught up in suicide truck bombing that killed 19 of his fellow countrymen and he was the only civilian to survive the massacre. This autobiographical true story is reconstructed in this harrowing bloody movie.
The movie starts out showing a carefree young man who dashes around Rome in his scooter filming anything and everything with his cine camera. He loved to hang out and party with an unruly bench of protesters and seemingly breezed though life without a care. When he is offered a real job to be an Assistant Director on a movie he jumps at the chance even though it’s going to be made in Iraq.
He soon bonds with the young soldiers who escort him around and he is with them when the attack occurs.
He’s dragged out from under a truck and after initial care in a local hospital is flown back to Rome to begin the long process of recovery. The attack has been big news back home and every newscaster, journalist and politician wants in on the story. Aureliano is declared a hero even though one of the few military survivors is claiming the he alone saved their lives.
It is an incredible story, wonderfully filmed with a fiery passion that obviously comes from the director’s personal investment in this whole process. The action is slow to start with and the pace lulls you into sense of an entirely different film than the one it develops into once the explosion occurs. From then on you’re fixed rigidly to the edge of the seat (albeit with your eyes partially closed because of the excessive blood which for some reason they left all over Aureliano’s face and body for weeks!) The drama is a tad high–pitched at times, but hey, they are Italians after all.
20 Cigarettes swept the board at the Venice Film Festival last year winning 7 awards, and then collected several other biggies in Italy after that. We saw it at the Italian Film Festival in Miami, and I so hope it gets a Theatrical Release too: it deserves a wider audience. I have watched several really stunning movies on different aspects of the Iraq & Afghanistan Conflicts. (‘The Hurt Locker,’ ‘Restrepo’ ‘ Control Room’, ‘The Messenger’ etc. etc.) and this is yet another totally different take, and I think equally as powerful. A very definite must see.
★★★★★★★★★
(n.b. the only trailer available is in Italian)
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