“Everything asks for salvation”, round trip from the black holes of mental illness (score 7½ )- Corriere.it

Under this poetic title hides a courageous series that examines the interpersonal relationships of a group of patients subjected to the TSO, the compulsory medical treatment. Which doesn’t mean being crazy, but urgently needing a form of psychic balance that has gone away, a coupon for our neuroses but above all for our sensitivity. Francesco Bruni’s work, 7 episodes on Netflix taken from the novel by Daniele Mencarelli which won the Premio Strega Giovani, is excellent teamwork, also meaning Italian cinema which has dealt with the border between normality and madness, starting from the « Matti da slegare» by Bellocchio, Rulli, Agosti and Petraglia, up to the top American «Someone flew over the cuckoo’s nest» and «Pazza Gioia» by Virzì, of which Bruni was often an assistant.

The series thrives on its own sentimental autonomy and social especially when he is among the six guests of the dormitory in which he “serves” the sentence of a week of hospitalization for having gone beyond the limits of the psychopathology of everyday life. In particular, our reference is the emotional, young Daniele (Federico Cesari makes him credible in every minute, even in his doubts and in his future) who finds himself after a crisis living with five guests in the psychiatric ward of a clinic where doctors and nurses they enforce fairly strict rules, although it will be seen that it is possible to circumvent them. Director and screenwriter often a detective of young people and youth (one for all, “Scialla!”), Bruni manages well the game of not simple relationships between people often oppressed by conscious or unconscious pain and who do not know each other.

There is Mario (Andrea Pennacchi, one of the best) a depressed elementary school teacher who seems to find the bird’s nest in front of him enough to find hope again, there is Gianluca, a gay oppressed by his military father (Vincenzo Crea, very good) attracted by Daniele, who instead has an escapade with a girl from the pavilion in alongside, Nina, an influencer who attempted suicide (Fotinì Peluso), the least interesting and most banal part of the whole story that covers a particular week of life. And then there’s Madonnina, with her eyes hidden by a black mist says the novel (Vincenzo Nemolato), a neurotic mystic almost farcical, Alessandro (Alessandro Pacioni) who lies in a vegetative state after an accident and finally, the latest arrival, Giorgio, size XL (Lorenzo Renzi) clearly the most dangerous due to his size and also due to the confused state of his mind.

The to and fro from the black holes of mental illness, the guests relate as best they can, an alliance is born between Daniele, who will leave after risking a double sentence, and Mario, unfortunately severed by a tragic event, while in “real” life the families of these patients watch over, suffer, a little they plot for their loved ones. The terrain of madness is very slippery for anyone and Bruni occasionally risks slipping onto facade sentimentality, while he manages to be convincing in the diagram of the impulses of hate and love among these people who have to exorcise the evil of living, coexisting with their own ghosts and also try to enter the privacy of others. Thanks to the cast, the mixture manages to amalgamate many data, it exceeds in moments of suspense, when doctors risk their lives, and when a sentimental attempt makes its way, while the banality of daily life in those conditions is very well expressed or only suggested from small annotations of petty psychology in the dormitory.

Also the department of guardians of the hospital order, who rummage but not too much in the confusion of their guests’ minds, net of some conventions, it works and the ward nurse Ricky Memphis earns the palm for the affectionate human impact he inserts in the common sense of the character. Faithful to the novel, the series imposes the point of view and life of Daniele, who will probably stay with us also because he is the young one, who has the vital strength to try to start over and promise everything immediately even when relations with the family are they get complicated and generate a mixture of sensations between drama and comedy.