02/12/2002 - Unemployment is the theme of Il posto dell'anima, starring Michele Placido, Silvio Orlando and Claudio Santamaria

Italian cinema has entered the new Millennium, an era that appears more rife with uncertainty and anxiety than ever before, the tradition of social commitment continues with a new film about factor workers.
Riccardo Milani’s follow up to Auguri professore, La guerra degli Antò and Il Caso Soffiantini entitled Il posto dell’anima (A Place for the Soul), a contemporary tale of a tyre factor that is closed down by the multinational that owns it. It is reminiscent of comedies like Brusati's Pane e cioccolato and Petri's La Classe operaia va in paradiso.

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Milani drew inspiration for this new film from a headline that caught his eye, “Better dead than unemployed” . He read the accompanying article about a factory worker who, given the choice of blowing the whistle about the dangers of his working environment, and losing his job, not surprisingly, went for the latter. Milani also wrote the screenplay with >b>Domenico Starnone and Il posto dell’anima is the story of three employees of the “Cerair” factory, where the “tyres for rain and shine” are made. The factory – and its workers – fall victim to merciless market laws.
The three protagonists each represent a generation and face up to the reality of their workplace in three very different ways. Michele Placido, who stars in the film alongside Silvio Orlando and Claudio Santamaria calls the three, “poor souls worthy of a tale by Gogol” who decide not to give up the ghost and go to talk with their boss, the American owner of the factory who wiped out their personal and professional identities with a simply stroke of the pen.
Produced by Albachiara and RaiCinema, Milani is currently shooting the film on location by the sea in Vasto.

(Translated from Italian)