Giorgio Diritti discusses "Lubo"
On Monday, November 13, 2023, Giorgio Diritti was a guest at Cinemazero to introduce his latest film, "Lubo," in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
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THE FILM
Lubo is a nomad, a street artist who in 1939 is called up to join the Swiss army to defend the national borders from a German invasion. Shortly thereafter, he discovers that his wife has died while trying to prevent the gendarmes from taking their three young children, who were taken from their family because they were Yenish, as part of the national re-education program for street children (Hilfswerk für die Kinder der Landstrasse). Lubo knows he will never find peace until he finds his children and obtains justice for his story and that of all those who are different like him.
"Reading the novel The Sower (on which the film is based)," says the director, "revealed to me a little-known historical story of the persecution of a nomadic minority, the Yenish, whose children were taken away for "re-education" between the 1930s and the 1970s. Research estimates put the number of children at around 2,000. This struck me as disturbing and particularly jarring for a democratic and civilized country like the Swiss Confederation, often cited as a "virtuous example" in the relationship between citizens and institutions. I asked myself what I would have done, how I would have acted under such great violence."