M.ahmood is told in a documentary previewed ad Alice in the city, parallel section of the Rome Film Festival, and in cinemas on October 17-18-19. Director Giorgio Testi follows the singer-songwriter, two times winner of Sanremo, during the stages of his European tour, from London to Madrid, from Taormina to Paris, and condenses his life into a film professional and personalbetween past and present: from when he sang at school to the first competitions, to success with Money And Chills with Blanco.
An artistic and personal journey. Mahmood also tells of the difficult relationship with the Egyptian father and the close relationship with the mother Anna, who is moved in front of the camera. There are also his Sardinian cousins, uncles and friendswhich Alessandro describes as “my safe haven“.
Mahmood: the plot
The documentary starts from the Ancient Theater of Taormina, during a concert by Mahmoodthen go back in time between archive images and memories of the same singer-songwriter and his mother. We move from behind the scenes of the last European tour and from Milan to Orosei, mother’s birthplace and vacation spot par excellence. “Every time I come to Sardinia it’s like if you were a child again – says Mahmood – with carasau bread, Nutella and a bath with my cousins, I get back to myself ».
The journey is from the Milanese suburbs to Egypt, in Alessandro’s music and in his life. As a child he emulated his favorite singers, then the first singing lessons and auditions for competitions arrived at 15/16, the first unreleased song (not written by him) There night adores you («A bit trashy», he admits) and the disappointment of X Factor.
“It seemed that you weren’t predestined,” he confesses, and instead it was enough to wait for the right moment. She writes her first hit Black Bali for Elodie, Michele Bravi and Guè Pequeno; Forget of 2016 marked his career: “I discovered his ailments from the songs,” confesses his mother. That song was the beginning of it all. In 2019 it is the turn of the explosive Moneywith which he wins Sanremo. The rest is recent history: another Sanremo together with Blanco thanks to Chills, Eurovision 2022 and the tour. In the documentary (on Prime Video from November 15) they talk Mahmoodhis friends, family and artists like Blanco, Carmen Consuls And Dardust.
The relationship with the father and mother
Through the songs Mahmood tells his personal story. Her mother Anna found out about her son’s discomfort, after his father’s abandonment, by listening Forget. “With his songs I understood his discomforts,” comments Anna, the woman in his life, who raised him. Alessandro describes himself as follows: “I’ve never been good at talking about myself, maybe that’s why I started writing songs. Sometimes I wrote things about me I am deeply ashamedbut in the end I think he is hiding in the midst of those words the truest part of me“.
Forget, Moneyare passages that refer to the difficult relationship with the father. «Making this documentary was therapeutic – admits the singer – sometimes in order not to think about the problems I try to obscure the memories of the past, this work has helped me to put some dots on the “i’s” ». “With my father – he says in the doc – it has always been a mess, there have been few good momentsand even over those a dark veil hovers: when he put me in front of the TV all day it could be a dream for a child, but now thinking about it … I remember when he left home, I have no anger or grudge, I have no regrets. We are on two opposite tracks ».
Mahmood. (Amazon Studios)
Mahmood: “I’m not a superstar who rocks”
The documentary does not want to make «a portrait of a superstar who rocks – Mahmood says – I wanted to show mine human side, a little anxious», Which is behind the one who looks like an alien on the stage. “I would also like to show that to reach a goal you don’t need loopholes, even if after so many doors in your face I thought so too: you just have to kick your ass“.
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