IT WAS TOMORROW – ERA DOMANI

IT WAS TOMORROW – ERA DOMANI

Alexandra D’Onofrio | Italy, Great Britain 2017 | 52 Min. | OmeU

The life we end up living is only one amongst many other possibilities. When we wonder who we are, where we come from and where we are going, we are also asking ourselves who would we be and what would have happened if only life had taken a different route.

Ali, Mahmoud and Mohamed are three Egyptian men who lived in Italy without documents for almost ten years. Suddenly thanks to an amnesty they finally manage to legalize their status and their future is re-inhabited by possibilities. As part of their need to rediscover their dreams and hopes they decide to take the journey back to the first places of arrival, when they disembarked from the boats that had brought them as teenagers to Italy after crossing the Mediterranean. The film follows them back to the emblematic places of the past, where memories are intertwined with fantasies about what could be, or could have been, their possible new life. This collaborative documentary filmmaking is accompanied by creative narrative processes such as theatre, storytelling, photography and participatory animation. 

Our life stories are re-crafted in the continuous dialogue between reality and possibility. Especially during moments of crisis, as when we find ourselves at a crossroads, and we need to choose which way to go, our imagined lives take hold of us again and question us. Art and creativity can help us retrace their existence…