The Way Home
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THE WAY HOME
Directed by Federico Olivetti | Review by Riya Saha
Being alone with your feelings is the worst because you have nowhere to run. They are dancing in your mind and all you can do is handle. You never realize how lonely you are until it is the end of the day and you got a bunch of things to talk about and no one to talk to. Human beings are always demanding emotions play a prime part in their lives. Whatever the circumstances are, good or bad they always need a companion to share their feelings. A painful, lonely, confused, silent childhood results in extreme reclusiveness. Maybe you are perfectly fine being alone, but if you grew up around a lot of family and had a pleasant, social childhood, you probably have a higher need for affection, affiliation, and social interaction. Even introverts need human connections, at least once in a while.
The Short Film ‘The Way Home’ directed by Federico Olivetti makes a perfect attempt to discuss a theme troubling to mankind as alienation, isolation, and loneliness. The film follows the tale of a Sardinian child Michele fatherless, completely clueless, and helpless having no one to speak to. This exuberant kid only has his mother to share his feelings, but she is too busy to give her child minimum time that he expects. The only person he can openly speak with is his lost father. One morning he skips school and reaches a coastal town, apparently deserted. He wanders through the streets of the city, has an accident. He was rescued and was taken to the hospital, but he gets scared and returns home. He asks his mother for help, but she completely ignores him. One day Michelle discovers his mother’s affair, tries to stop her but fails to. He follows her mother and gets completely disheartened. Michele runs away, roams lonely and abandoned, just like a stray dog no one to care for through ruins and wild paths, pushing him further and further from the sea. Exhausted, he descends a gorge carved in red rock, and rests inside the ruins of a building, have little food that he was carrying in his pocket and falls asleep.
Director Federico Olivetti in his film ‘The Way Home’ has interestingly worked on the climax of the film. He created a twist in his film which completely changed the innocence of the child and made him grow. Now, you have to watch the movie to know what changed Michele’s life forever. Did he get the chance to speak up everything to his mother? To find answers to all these, you got to watch this film for sure. I started watching the film with mixed feeling, but ended up satisfied, wishing the film to last longer. Shots in this film will surely sear your mind for a long time after viewing this picture. And if you do not get lost in the aesthetic, you will most certainly lose yourself into loneliness and how the innocence of a child ends. ‘The Way Home’ by director Federico Olivetti is as beautiful and well crafted as it is absolutely oppressive and unforgettable.
Riya Saha is a Kolkata based writer, editor, journalist and cinephile. She has completed her masters with Journalism and Mass Communication from Calcutta University and currently working as a freelance journalist. Having a great interest in world cinema made Riya join Human Lab Corporation. She is passionate about setting goals and achieving them. She enjoys reading, writing, travelling, socializing and meeting people. She is also very fond of watching International movies.
