SYNOPSIS

The working class no longer goes to heaven.

On August 15, 2008, the company which manages the Italian railway system sacked,
for the second time, the driver and delegate for safety Dante De Angelis for having
publicly revealed the risks of high velocity trains.

Such is the paradoxical end of this film which, besides the story of

Dante’s first dismissal, tells of the struggles of Italian railway workers

cast off by the state and by their unions and compelled to work without

regulation: continual shift cycles, fatal accidents, dismissal for those who

dare speak out on television or refuse to drive unsafe trains.

This is the long shadow of privatization: deaths which are photocopies of

those described in Ken Loach’s prestigious film on railways “The Navigators”

while company managers with seven-figure salaries play in real life

with real lives just like the old hobbyist does with his model trains.

The precarious situation of the railway workers parallels the conditions of

an adolescent subjected to the deaf choices of parents, as in the case

of Lessyta, the 15 year-old black student who refuses to leave her house

by the railway tracks where she was born and raised.

PRESS

“Amendola’s film is like a dance”

Giusi Marcante - IL MANIFESTO

“Simone Amendola never preaches. The direction, photography and editing

make this documentary truly filmic”

Paolo Izzo - AGENZIA RADICALE

“A skillfully made film with fresh, engrossing storytelling and faultless editing.

The “actors” “play” themselves and are excellent. In short, well worth seeing.”

Massimo Franchi - L’UNITA’

“The characters in this film show that courage still exists in our country,

not just submission.”

Silvana Silvestri - IL MANIFESTO

“This film will be much talked about for its poetry and spirit of social protest.”

Flore Murard-Yovanovitch - TERRA

SIMONE AMENDOLA 
director

Rome, 1975. Filmmaker and writer

Since 2003, when he filmed his first documentary “Grattachecca e

Fighetto”, he has participated in various national festivals with the short

film “Bocche Cucite” (for which he received the Anello Debole Prize -

special mention); with two documentaries, one on the African Cup (“Oh

My God!”) and the other about Ken Loach’s film “Ticket” (“Extra

Loach”); and with the video-art along with the Iraqi artist Ali Assaf (Biennale

de Il Cairo 2008).

In cinema, he has worked as assistant director and as cameraman in

“Civico Zero” by Citto Mastelli, while in theatre he has written and directed

the plays “Nessuno Può Tenere Baby in un Angolo” and “Porta Furba”

(awarded with publication in Oreste Calabresi).

“Quando Combattono gli Elefanti” is his first feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY

Feature Films:

2009 – “Quando Combattono gli Elefanti”

Short & Documentaries:

2009 - "Alisya IN WONDERLAND"
2007 – “Bocche Cucite”
2004 – “Oh My God!”

2004 – “Extra’s Loach”

2003 – “Grattachecca & Fighetto”

Video Art:

2005 - “Lampedusa Checkpoint “

2008 - “I’m her, I’m Him”