A cultural festival bringing together art and science around mental health, Lo Spiraglio screened free films April 13–15 at Rome's SCENA space, managed by the Lazio Region and MAXXI, across both sides of the Tiber. The organizers chose these central, complementary locations to gather the festival's diverse constituencies—a goal the festival has pursued since its founding, when it set out to reach "a broad, undifferentiated audience of cinema lovers and cinephiles."
A significant focus fell on films about migration, a subject that exposes how the human mind can be shattered and traumatized by the forced necessity to abandon one's geographic and social home. This dimension—often overlooked in discussions of migration—found dedicated space here through the Samifo Prize (Health of Forcibly Displaced Migrants).
Several compelling films were shown. This year's winner was Trieste Is Beautiful at Night, which exposes the little-known practice of "informal readmissions" carried out by Italy's Interior Ministry in 2020, suspended in 2021 after Rome's courts ruled them illegal, then revived in November 2022 under Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. These operations expel migrants arriving via the Balkan route without allowing them to request asylum or international protection. The perilous journeys rarely succeed. Often migrants attempt the crossing—called a "game," like a video game level—again and again. One can only imagine the horror: after surviving extreme conditions, tasting a moment of refuge, only to be sent back into Slovenia, then Croatia, then Bosnia, treated with escalating cruelty by local police, before starting over. The journey back to Italy begins anew. Directors Andrea Segre, Stefano Collizzolli, and Matteo Calore weave together migrant interviews with an investigation of how our country violates national and international law on issues that fail to command public attention. This is cinema with purpose—essential for understanding Italy and the world.