Il passaggio della linea (Pietro Marcello, Italy, 2007, 60')

Il passaggio della linea is a journey across Italy set to the rhythm of long-distance express trains, long abandoned to a destiny of slow decay, as they cross the Italian peninsula from South to North and back again, in a trip spanning night and day. It is a succession of landscapes, buildings, faces, dialects, voices and lives which blend together onboard the trains. Inside the bare carriages, the lives of the passengers, who often speak different languages, intersect. They are mostly commuters travelling North, young people, foreigners, workers in termporary jobs who travel long distances using the cheapest and most available means of transportation. Outside the train, through the dirty and steamed up windows, we see landscapes that have been painfully devastated by man and landscapes whose arrogant beauty is still intact. Inside, the passage of time is marked only by changes in the light falling along the narrow aisles, revealing tired and listless faces. The lives of train passangers seem confined to this space, both a meeting point and a solitary place, suspended in time.