I 2020, A documentary film by Rocco Di Mento, 84 min, OmeU, In Anwesenheit des Regisseurs Rocco Di Mento, Moderation Elisa Cuter
A young man meets a young woman and both fall for each other. A house is built, children are born, the fairy tale story of boundless love takes its course.
A grandson sets out to explore the myth of his grandparents romance and tries to honour his deceased grandfather on film, assisted by all the surviving relatives. Not an easy undertaking when things may not have been exactly as the family tradition would have it & In his search Rocco Di Mento unearths old 8mm home movies, an unpublished novel, various love letters and a whole host of long-suppressed feelings.
Its hardly surprising that this mixture begins to develop a dynamic of its own. Suddenly the issue is no longer only the search for the love of ones life but also the questions of what holds people together above and beyond their relationship status and degree of kinship and how forgiveness is possible even though you have long since lost faith in it.
An ingeniously constructed family constellation full of Italian temperament, in which tension, emotion and truthfulness are inextricably linked. Because: Even if you leave you will always be part of your family. Luc-Carolin Ziemann (Dok-Leipzig)
ITA
Un giovane uomo incontra una giovane donna ed entrambi si innamorano l'uno dell'altra. Si costruisce una casa, nascono dei figli, la storia fiabesca di un amore sconfinato fa il suo corso.
Un nipote si propone di esplorare il mito della storia d'amore dei nonni e cerca di onorare il nonno defunto in un film, assistito da tutti i parenti sopravvissuti. Nella sua ricerca Rocco Di Mento porta alla luce vecchi filmini da 8 mm, un romanzo inedito, varie lettere d'amore e una serie di sentimenti a lungo repressi.
Non sorprende che questo miscuglio inizi a sviluppare una dinamica propria. Improvvisamente il tema non è più solo la ricerca dell'amore della propria vita, ma anche la questione di ciò che tiene unite le persone al di là del loro stato di parentela e del grado di parentela, e di come sia possibile il perdono anche se si è persa la fede da tempo.
Una costellazione familiare ingegnosamente costruita e piena di temperamento italiano, in cui tensione, emozione e verità sono inestricabilmente legate. Perché: Anche se te ne vai sarai sempre parte della tua famiglia. Luc-Carolin Ziemann (Dok-Leipzig)
Festival and Awards
63rd DOK Leipzig 2020 Nomination for the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize
Biografilm International Celebration of Lives 2021 (Italy) / Winner of the New Talents Award (Italian Section) „For having been able to combine the past and the present of his family, seeking its origins through measured and harmonious self-narration and for having been able to tactfully outline the fresco of three generartions suspended between love and conflict, the award for the best debut feature goes to The Blunder of Love by Rocco Di Mento“
Chesnok Film Festival for Human Rights official selection (Transnistria)
Doc Alliance Award (Cannes, Marché du Film, France) / Winner of the „Best Feature Film“ Award „Even if The Blunder of Love is not the first film in which a director turns the camera on their own family, it is done with a charming curiosity that evolves into a genuine deconstruction of myth and a discrete revelation of family secrets and trauma and how it is passed on from generation to generation.“
18th Millenium Docs Against Gravity 2021 official selection (Poland)
17th Achtung Berlin Filmfestival official selection (Germany)
15th Salina Doc Fest official selection (Italy) / Special Mention „A story, at the same time, of mad love and hate, of memories and repression, of certainties and doubts. In other words, about the complex and contradictory matter that characterizes the depth of our lives.“
19th Doc Lisboa official selection (Portugal)
25th Ji.hlava Film Festival offical selection (Czech Republic)
Rocco Di Mento Born 1984 in Italy, has been working as a freelance film editor in Berlin since 2010. He cooperates with major content producers such as VICE Media for which he edited numerous short documentaries. Between 2016 and 2021, he has been studying documentary directing at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. His first work as a documentary director „The Demon, The Flow and Me“ (2016), was selected and awarded at independent international film festivals such as Achtung Berlin, Festival du Cinéma de Brive, France, Rudnik International Debut Documentary Film Festival in Sviyazhsk, Russia, and Film Festival del Garda in San Felice del Benaco, Italy.
“The Blunder of Love” is his first feature length documentary film.
Director‘s Statement
When I began to conceive this documentary film my intention was to find a solution to a never ending conflict spreading over three generations in my family. One day, while visiting my grandmother in Italy, I‘ve found in her basement a yellowed manuscript, my grandfather’s fictional life story: The Blunder of Life, life’s stupid or careless mistakes.
While reading it I suddenly understood why so much pain continued to harbour through my family: the failure of my grandfather’s picture of a perfect love and a happy family ended up with traumatising three generations, unable to express love and tenderness.