why he is in Serbia. He arrived as an honor- ary guest to open the 11 th Beldocs Interna- tional Documentary Film Festival, which this year screened as many as 98 new creations, including Ferrara’s own Piazza Vittorio. In op- position to the brutality of urban life, false morality, quasi-art; opposed to war and lib- eral capitalism, opposed to everything that Ferrara fought in his films, it is no wonder that he has re-engaged in a current social is- sue: people from the margins, migrants with whom he lives on Rome’s largest square, Pi- azza Vittorio... - I live with them, our lives are connected and intertwined. You can discuss the world and major topics, but everyone lives in your neighbourhood. They spend most of their lives not far from home, if they’re lucky they live in a house, if not, then they live in the park like the people in this film. That’s why it’s important for us to meet them and un- derstand where they come from. Ferrara has spent two decades travelling theworld,mainlybetweenEuropeandAmeri- ca, only to finally settle in Italy, in Rome, where his next-door neighbour is actor William De- foe, one of his best friends, most trusted as- sociates, and the godfather of his daughter. They arrived together, established their fam-
ilies and today live near Rome’s Piazza Vitto- rio, so we also see Defoe in the film, buying supplies from a greengrocer. Ferrara brings mini stories of that world of migrants, drug addicts, mothers with children on the play- ground, Italian women who curse the new- comers… However, he does so with a cer- tain emotional distance. - When a drunkard sits on the window, yelling all night and scaring my child, I want to strangle him. Do I go around picking peo- ple up and taking them to my bed? No, I don’t do that. That’s now my home, there are two sides to the square, the park, two sides to the world, two sides to everything... I care, but I help in the way I can, by doing my job. Films, artworks, songs, books – they can all turn the world upside down and change our lives. I do this because it’s important to me, and all that remains is for me to hope that it will have some influence. The man who made the film King of New York, who was born and raised in that city, doesn’t miss New York. He speaks about it without an ounce of nostalgia, or at least that’s how he presents himself. He says that this city is no longer his, that he doesn’t rec- ognise it or even know it. - I don’t have anything to do with New
York anymore, it’s a playground for billion- aires, not for normal people, and that’s why it doesn’t interest me. You mention the Bronx, andthat’sanotherplanet.That’smyNewYork, man; we didn’t even know that Manhattan ex- isted. It was there somewhere, near the Em- pire. We stared at it from Brooklyn across the river, just one subway station and an entire light year away. That Manhattan can now be surrounded by a wall, because it isn’t possible to live there in miniature apartments costing $10,000amonth.IseethatyoulikeNewYork, do you have enough money to live there? I don’t have even close to that much money, but I won’t let you, Ferrara, destroy my dreams of New York, I think to myself. I remind him that his New York was also hor- rific, cruel and brutal, that the streets of his films ran red with the blood of many. I re- mind him of the New York of the film Bad Lieutenant and the frenzied Harvey Keitel, to which Ferrara laughs... - What’s with you all in Serbia when it comes to that movie? You’re all fans of bad lieutenant here! But let’s return to the story. You’re right, I address the brutality of urban life, my heroes are sociopaths, but they are trying to redeem themselves. That lieuten- ant, out of his head on drugs, sees Jesus and
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