Il mio corpo

Oscar is a young scrap metal collector in Italy. Stanley fled to the country from Nigeria and is hoping for a better life. On first impressions, the two main protagonists in Il mio corpo don’t seem to have anything in common. Gradually, however, it becomes clear just how much they actually share.

In the opening minutes of this film, previously selected for the Cannes Film Festival, we see Oscar and his older brother toiling away on a scrapheap while their father looks on. Of the two, it’s Oscar who most often is told that he should be working harder. He just keeps quiet. He hasn’t got much influence in the matter. Stanley, too, lives with the burden of being acutely dependent on other people. He survived the dangerous journey from Africa, but now all he can do is hope that someone will give him a job—or a residence permit at the very least.

When the paths of their lives in Sicily do eventually cross, it’s thanks to an intervention by director Michele Pennetta—Il mio corpo is more than just an observation of their lives. The cinematography, editing, and narrative structure combine to create the sense of a tender feature film.