The protagonist of this film is a building. Standing on the perimeter of Rome like a monolith in the open countryside is a municipal housing complex from the 1970s: Corviale. This ravaged concrete structure, which stretches for over a kilometre, has become the embodiment of a failed utopia from an urban planner's drawing board. Designed as a self-sufficient city, for decades this complex has largely been left to the devices of its 8000 residents.
The film interweaves the vistas of this fascinating architectural monstrosity with the ways the inhabitants see their living space. As if the building had a voice of its own, the off-camera reports and tales related by the residents blend to give a polyphonic picture of personal fates intimately linked with the history of Corviale. Gradually, a space opens up in which the viewer can reflect on the contradictions that underlie our Western metropolises.
The film interweaves the vistas of this fascinating architectural monstrosity with the ways the inhabitants see their living space. As if the building had a voice of its own, the off-camera reports and tales related by the residents blend to give a polyphonic picture of personal fates intimately linked with the history of Corviale. Gradually, a space opens up in which the viewer can reflect on the contradictions that underlie our Western metropolises.
