FUNNE: SEA DREAMING GIRLS/ LE RAGAZZE CHE SOGNAVANO IL MARE

Italy/Croatia, 2017, 77 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Katia Bernardi.

This is a very pleasant film, a focus on elderly women in Italy, in the mountainous countryside near the city of Trent.

The framework of the film and the commentary highlight a myth about eels swimming upstream while other fish swim downstream. These eels settled in the mountains and stayed there. Now, a group of their descendants, grandmothers in their 70s and 80s, have a great desire to see the sea.

The film shows some of their meetings, their discussions, their leadership. They decide to bake cakes and sell them at the fair. This doesn’t bring enough money to pay their fare to the sea. They speak to a consultant and decide to produce a calendar, photos taken of all the women and their being inserted in photoshopping in a range of settings. Again, not enough money. They then talk to an IT expert who introduces them to the Internet, Facebook, crowdfunding.

The crowdfunding has results, people all over Italy responding to the women, radio and television interviews including a lengthy interview with a correspondent from Vatican radio.

There is a religious background, an old-style Catholicism from Italy, piety with statues, rosaries and processions. And there is a prospect of an audience with the Pope.

Finally, they go and enjoy being at the beach on an island in Croatia, toes in the water, swims, sitting on the shore, happy in what they have achieved.

1. The title? The fantasies of the eels swimming upstream and settling in the mountains? The women wanting to see the sea? Many never having seen it?

2. The voice-over, the fairytale tone, the different chapters and application? The finale of the myth?

3. The mountain locations, near Trent? The beauty, the landscapes? The town, homes, meeting places? The streets? The atmosphere of the village? Settled in the mountains? The musical score?

4. The group of women, their age, their meetings, discussions? The different personalities, participation in the group, leadership?

5. The project to visit the sea? The women who had seen it in the past? The others who had never seen it? Their hopes, the agreement?

6. The background of the town, the men generally not seen?

7. The Catholicism, the priest and the presbytery, the church, the processions, the statues, the feast of Our Lady of the Snow? Rosary? Devotion?

8. The meetings and the various projects? The fair, the religious procession, the baking of the cakes, selling the cakes? The money still falling short?

9. The idea of the calendar, the fire brigade annual calendar? Calling in the expert? The discussions, the poses, the computer, his putting the women in amusing settings? The modest sales?

10. The IT expert, the women learning about IT? The setting up of the website? Facebook? The idea of crowd-funding? On the Internet, the responses, the money coming in? The articles, the interviews, the radio and television? Some wary of the publicity? Vatican radio and the long interview, the money, difficulties about bank accounts, the possibility of the audience with the Pope?

11. Going to the sea, the bus, the travel, Croatia, the islands? Walking to the sea, toes in the water? The swim? The exhilaration?

12. Sympathetic portrait of older women, of the elderly, their desires and needs? And the finale with them all sitting in the beach chairs?