The Call (La convocazione)

Film Info
Category:Documentary
Country:Italy
Year:2017
Running Time:56 min.
Language:Italian
Credits
Director:Enrico Maisto
Producer:Start S.r.l. with Rai Cinema
Cinematographer:Jacopo Loiodice
Editor:Veronica Scotti
Valentina Cicogna

Description

Italian citizens can be called to serve on juries on very short notice, randomly selected to appear the next day. The police personally deliver notices to appear to jurors assigned to Milan’s Court of Assize, which tries the country’s most notorious crimes in Italy At 10 a.m., 60 tense Italians take their places in the court’s somber building (described by one of the jurors as an example of fascist rationalist architecture), featuring a mosaic by artist Mario Sironi titled “Justice and the Law.” Lead judge Anna Conforti encourages the jurors to move in closer as she addresses them about the jury selection process and the obligation to use their common sense in deciding a difficult case. The camera lingers on Sironi’s mosaic and captures the faces of Italian citizens close up, as they spend the day waiting to be interviewed, speculating about the judicial process, and discussing possible Mafia retribution. The Call, a beautifully shot and scored cinema vérité film, observes with profound humanity these unknown jurors tasked with the highest civil responsibility. Maisto’s documentary is an exceptional chronicle of that special day when a citizen comes into direct contact with the administration of justice. The Call was awarded Best Mid-length Documentary at Hot Docs and the Premio MyMovies Audience Award at Festival dei Popoli.

Co-Presented by:
California Film Institute
Humanities West
SFSU School of Cinema

Additional Information

Enrico Maisto was born in Milan in 1988. After graduating in Aesthetical Philosophy at the University of Milan, he worked as a trainee director on Marco Bellocchio’s 2009 film Vincere. On that occasion, he produced the movie’s electronic press kit: This was his first experience in documentary filmmaking. In 2014, his first feature documentary film, Comandante, was selected for the Milan Film Festival where it won the Premio Aprile. The movie also screened in several experimental cinemas. In 2015, he won the Premio Solinas for documentaries with the movie La convocazione, written with Valentina Cicogna. Since 2016, he has been the coordinator of the movie section at Milan’s San Fedele Cultural Foundation.