Castel Volturno, about thirty kilometers from Naples. It is September 18, 2008. A group of Camorra members burst into a tailor's shop run by African immigrants. They fire a hundred bullets indiscriminately, killing six young black men and seriously wounding another. Yussouf, a young immigrant, decided that same evening to settle the score with his uncle Moses. The man who convinced him to come to Italy. He had promised him a future as an honest craftsman but instead turned him into the cynical manager of a million-dollar cocaine ring. Entangled in their story are another African boy, Germain, who happened to be at the scene of the massacre; his girlfriend Asetù, who sings a Miriam Makeba song in public that same evening; and Suad, a prostitute whom Yussouf dreams of rescuing from her pimps.
Acting
Alassane's Yussouf—quiet rage that curdles into something worse.
Cinematography
Castel Volturno as wound: beaches, decay, and neon rot.
Direction
Lombardi lets scenes breathe until you choke on them.
Director
Guido Lombardi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Castel Volturno's real 2008 massacre remains one of Italy's least examined hate crimes; Lombardi shot on location with survivors as extras.
The title 'Là-Bas' ('Over There') echoes a French colonial song about distant homeland—here, nowhere is home.
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