27/01/2025 - Christian Filippi’s moving debut speaks of the disillusionment of a young man in a foster home who dreams of living with his mother but who is forced to face reality

Riccardino wants to see his mother again, at all costs. With a view to making this happen, he even threatens to throw himself from the roof of the foster home which took him in four years ago, when his mother was sectioned in a psychiatric hospital. Riccardino is about to hit 18 and his birthday is a crucial date, because once he’s an adult he can finally make his dream come true. My Birthday [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Christian Filippi’s poignant debut feature film, paints a visceral portrait of this unlucky (but uncommonly determined) young man’s passage from dream to disillusionment, destined as he is, like many of his peers, to a life spent on the margins of society without parents to act as his guides.

“This generation’s approach to painful situations isn’t only despondent or passive”, explains the 33-year-old Roman director who wrote the screenplay with Anita Otto, based on a writing lab she held in Roman foster homes in 2018, “it’s also characterised by a powerful sense of irony and irreverent humour which protects them from their ghosts”. And it’s the courageous and mocking smile worn by Riccardino (Zackari Delmas) which ultimately leaves its mark on us after watching this small yet potent opus, which was presented in last year’s Venice Film Festival as one of the Biennale College Cinema projects, before scooping a Special Mention from Rome’s Alice nella Città jury. The movie has just screened in the 36th Trieste Film Festival’s INCinema section, dedicated to inclusive films.

Shot in a 4:3 format which effectively clings to the bodies and faces of its characters, the film’s first half is wholly set in the foster home, where rebellious and stubborn Riccardino feels like he’s trapped in a cage, forced to follow the institute’s rigid rules but also lovingly and empathically mentored by his youth workers, played by Simone Liberati and Giulia Galassi. The latter, in particular, who’s whole-heartedly devoted to her job, to the point she no longer has a life of her own outside of work, takes Riccardino’s case to heart, but not even she can dissuade the boy from his sole goal: reuniting with his mother who struggles with bipolar disorder. The second part of the film takes us outside of the foster home, and this is where we get to know the young mother (Silvia D’Amico) with whom Riccardino irrationally runs away, caught between love and desperation, and hugs and rejection, without any money or a place to sleep, and driving a car without a licence.

The energy and authenticity of this young protagonist to whom we immediately warm are the driving forces of this film, which strikes us to the core with its stripped-back dialogue and meagre resources, conveying the tragic situation of this young person who’s hungry for love – and, by extension, that of his mother who’s struggling with mental chaos – without neglecting to alleviate the viewing experience with a sprinkling of light-hearted moments. Riccardino’s obsession is the story’s guiding thread, and facing up to reality is as painful and inescapable as the choice he makes once he reaches adulthood, in order to find his place in the world.

My Birthday was produced by Schicchera Production in association with Media Flow. The film was developed and produced during the 12th edition (2023-2024) of Biennale College Cinema.

(Translated from Italian)