The best youth

At the Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR) in 2004, the Italian film won The best youth ('the best of youth') won the audience award in a very convincing way. Never before have spectators awarded a film so many points. There was a buzz among the festival audience for a long time to come. The best youth by director Marco Tullio Giordana is therefore a special film in several respects.

long seat

You have to be able to sit for a long time (or watch it in 2 parts), since it lasts no less than 383 minutes (more than 6 hours). It is therefore not just a film, but a family chronicle of epic proportions, set against the background of modern Italian history, from the mid-XNUMXs to just after the turn of the century.

Nicola and Matteo are two brothers who initially share the same dreams, books and friendships. When they meet Giorgia, a young girl suffering from mental disorders, their future is forced to take a different turn. Nicola decides to become a psychiatrist, Matteo gives up his studies and reports to the police.

The small and big dramas in the lives of Matteo, Nicola and their family run parallel to milestones in recent Italian history: the flooding of Florence, the fight against the Sicilian mafia, the major football matches of the Italian national team, the student protests, the terrorism of the Red Brigades, the Fiat crisis…

Originally a TV series

The reason the film is so long is that it was originally set up by the Italian channel RAI as a TV series in 4 parts. However, the Italian public broadcaster did not find the end result so suitable for a large audience and held off.

However, the producer was convinced of the quality and showed the film to the selection committee of the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. It was selected and won the prize for best film in the category Un Certain Regard. A theatrical release was then inevitable.

Digitally restored

At the beginning of this century, however, TV series were still edited in a much lower quality. The prints for the cinema were made from that old television master. Now the film appears in a new, digitally restored version, based on the original film negatives. The best youth is now also technically cinema-worthy, which does justice to the magnificent story.

If you can, watch it on blu-ray. This classic is worth it.