Von Trotta, 'I don't think Meloni is an emancipated woman'

(by Alice Fumis) (ANSA) - TRIESTE, 22 GEN - "I am not Italian. All I can say is that I am a little disappointed for all these women who tried to emancipate themselves, to be free, and they elect Meloni, whom I don't think is an emancipated woman." German director, Margarethe von Trotta, is in Trieste to present her latest film "Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey Into the Desert," starring Vicky Krieps and Ronald Zehrfeld, dedicated to the Austrian poet and writer, which will soon be distributed in Italy by Movies Inspired. In a press conference, she answers questions about her latest work and traces her career, telling a 360-degree story focusing on women and women's emancipation, including in Italy.
    She begins with the 1970s and the "responsibility" she felt she had, at the beginning of her career as a director, towards women, who at the time "did not have so many opportunities to speak out": "I made my first film in '77, there were not so many German women directors." She then addresses the issue of gender-based violence: "Women often do not realize that psychological violence is stronger than physical violence." The occasion for focusing on her life and career is the Trieste film festival, notably the Wild Rose section, which is dedicated this year to female filmmakers from Germany. Von Trotta says that in her works, she "chose to talk about German women" close to her background and confesses that after winning the Golden Lion in Venice in 1981 with "Anni di Piombo," "an Italian production asked me to make a film about Evita Peron, but how could I since she belongs to a different world from mine?" Von Trotta talks about the beginnings, that is, when "I was not making expensive films," and when a "very cohesive and supportive group" had formed among German filmmakers, with "Wim Wenders offering to pay for my next film in 35 millimeters" as long as he did not make them in 16. The director then describes her seven years in Rome, a city with which she is "totally in love." "Then," she explains, "Berlusconi came to power: I had an Italian friend who did not want to stay in Italy, I had a house in Paris, and we went to live there, but I was sorry to leave Rome." She has no doubts about considering Italy's postwar cinema as "the most beautiful and strongest in the world," and, dwelling on Germany's, she observes, "In the 1970s, it had the world's attention, but then it shifted to other countries. We had our chance." She underlines, "Either you are good, or you are not good: you take part because you are good, not because you agree to sleep with someone," "This aspect had to change, but maybe not totally." (ANSA).