“Violence does not inhabit monsters, it inhabits our lives”

“It is hell to be loved by those who love neither happiness, nor life, nor themselves, but only you”, the docufilm opens with a phrase by Elsa Morante Another Tomorrow – Survey on violence in emotional relationships by Silvio Soldiniwritten and created together with Christian Mainardi, who tries to go to the roots of violence within emotional relationships. Ill-treatment, stalking, femicides, threats and psychological violence, all the degrees and all the nuances of a phenomenon that unfortunately in Italy month after month always makes new victims.

It is a documentary film made up of many testimonies, there are the perpetrators and there are the victims, of stories and discussions with the operators who are faced with this violence. And then there are the buildings, the houses, which we can only observe from the outside. What happens in the lives of others we can only guess, but never fully.

«The glaring violence, unfortunately the ones on the front page, are just the tip of the iceberg. Of what’s underneath, in the submerged part, nobody ever talks. Here you are Another tomorrow try to go and understand and show what’s underneath», explains Soldini. The data confirms: in 2021, there were 11,771 women who accessed the emergency room with an indication of violence.

“We wanted interview men and then, in addition to talking about prevention, we went looking for the victims to understand how they managed to get out of it”. To guide them, continues Mainardi, was Alexandra Simonnow commissioner of Savona and for several years head of the homicide squad and of the anti-crime team of Milan, creator of the Zeus protocol, a prevention model already adopted by thirty-six Italian police stations. The Zeus protocol works like this: it is essential to intervene before things degenerate, giving the police commissioner the opportunity to admonish anyone who displays violent behavior in a domestic context, even if there has not yet been a complaint. Those who are reported are invited to participate in a listening process. Instead, the victim is informed of all kinds of support that she can receive.

«A lot depends on the society we live in, impregnated with machismo and patriarchy», Mainardi declares, «There is a cultural theme that concerns everyone, even those who go no further. There are still stereotypes and prejudices that even the most advanced people are unable to call by their name, i.e. violent or spoiled situations. Seven out of 10 victims do not know that what they are suffering is a crime.

For this video Soldini and Mainardi wanted the perpetrators of violent behavior, without having their faces pixelated and without faking their voices: “Violence does not inhabit monsters, but inhabits our lives”, the director continues. “Above all, stalkers have no awareness of what they are doing, as they gradually acquire it during the course of help”. And then there’s the victim blaming: «Unfortunately, women are still so little believed», explains Mainardi, «We always tend to belittle them, to mortify them, there is a lot of work to do».

The two also wanted to tell the most atrocious stories, that of Giovanna, a mother forced to suffer the pain of the disappearance of one of her little girls, killed, for a sort of incomprehensible revenge, by her father and her partner. And then the meeting with another woman, Francesca, who was orphaned as a child. To kill the mother, in front of her eyes, was the father who did not want to accept that he was left behind.

Another tomorrow it’s possible? «There is a need for a solid support network around the laws and they can do a lot against gender-based violence knowledge and education. If we thought that this phenomenon could affect every relationship, that it affects us all, it would already be a step forward”.

The docufilm will also be at the Festival della Mente in Sarzana on 2 September.