Gianfranco Rosi's 'Notturno' Screens at Venice Film Festival

Gianfranco Rosi's documentary 'Notturno' premiered in competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. The film portrays people living along the Middle Eastern border, capturing the echoes of war without focusing on combat itself. Instead, it centers on civilians enduring conflict, oppression, and uncertainty. Rosi's observational style uses silence, color, and sound to depict daily life in regions scarred by tyranny, terrorism, and invasion. Scenes include a mother mourning her tortured son, a man praying in the street, a guard preparing for duty, psychiatric hospital patients staging a performance, and children recounting violence. The film explores themes of homeland, resistance, and human egoism. Rosi is described as a non-intrusive observer whose images form self-contained stories. 'Notturno' is not a war documentary but a portrait of people living under war's shadow, where bombs mark time between day and night.