E’ iniziato il lavoro di preparazione e produzione del film Once Were Humans, la cui sceneggiatura è tratta dal testo teatrale Mele e Negri lavoro andato in scena grazie al Teatro Metastasio di Prato e a Jose Sanchis Sinisterra nel 2007.
Sono passati quasi dieci anni da quel debutto, ma quella storia potrebbe essere stata scritta oggi: un furto di un camion pieno di tv e computer, la scoperta che nel camion non ci sono elettrodomestici, ma cinque immigrati nascosti e in fuga.
Il film è una produzione che unisce Slovenia (Bostjan Ikovic, per Arsmedia); Italia (Simone Bachini, per Apapaja) e Bosnia. Once were humans, scritto da Tommaso Santi, sarà diretto da Goran Vojnovic e interpretato da Francesco Borchi e Moamer Kasumovic.
Nel passaggio dal teatro al cinema non cambia l’impianto della storia, che però “esplode” nello spazio, si arricchisce di personaggi e diventa ancora più complessa. Il film sarà girato a Kranjska Gora, dove si incontrano tre confini: quello sloveno, quello austriaco e quello italiano.
ONCE WERE HUMANS
Screenplay: Tommaso Santi, Goran Vojnović
Director: Goran Vojnović
Synopsis
Leo and Vučko, an Italian and a Bosnian, owners of a restaurant in Kranjska Gora agree to rob the commission to pay off their debts to a loan shark: they must rob a truck full of appliances.
After the robbery they discover that there are no televisions and computers in the truck but five illegal immigrants, hidden among boxes of fruit.
They are shocked by the discovery but have to pay the loan shark, who wants his money back. If they do not pay, he will take their restaurant. So Leo and Vučko decide to try to sell immigrants to human traffickers.
They hide the truck inside the warehouse of their restaurant and they manage to control immigrants with threats and promises that their trip will soon continue. In the meantime they are looking for someone, who will buy them.
After the first failed attempt, when the situation gets out of control as immigrants try to break free from the truck, Leo and Vučko find another “customer”, ready to pay very well. It is an organ trafficker, who is ready to take that load at once.
Leo and Vučko are willing to do anything to save their restaurant. Now they are desperate and decide to deliver the truck to the traffickers. But when the time of the exchange comes, they decide they can not go on. They escape with the truck and drive it to a mountain area, where they free the immigrants. They have lost everything but maybe they saved a small part of their humanity.