R.Riccardo looks out onto the balcony and looks at the playground below the house, which is still empty. “How nice when I went on the swing last year!” He sighs, thinking about what the pandemic has stolen from him and that no one will give back. He is only 11 years old, but he already has the nostalgia and disenchantment of an adult. You know that time of slides, hide and seek and catch is over forever. And he just touched it, without even fully enjoying it. He is now there, alone, to remember. It is one of the most intense moments of Nothing wrong with thatthe film filmed remotely at the end of the school year 2020/21 which tells, through the voices of the protagonists, the emotions, desires, regrets of the students of six middle schools throughout Italy.
From “Nothing wrong”, by Gabriele Gianni and Davide Barletti.
“For a few months, the kids kept a diary of the time, which they then read at school, in front of a remote controlled camera” says Gabriele Gianni, director with Davide Barletti of the film that will be presented on June 14th to Biografilm Festival of Bologna (in the summer it will participate in the “Free cinema in free land” festival, and from September it will be screened in schools). “Some of them were instead given a personal video camera, through which they talked about themselves without filters, in their bedroom, in absolute freedom, addressing issues such as loneliness, relationships with peers, the family. Covid is the frame, they are the picture“. A rather complex picture, it must be said.
It takes time to metabolize
One year after the film was shot, and two and a half years after the pandemic broke out, the question we want to ask ourselves now, and which is suggested to us precisely by the images of Nothing wrong with thatis: how are the kids today? How much did lockdown, isolation, Dad, long-distance friendships weigh on them? What adults will they be tomorrow? There was talk of the discomfort of children, of the loneliness of teenagers. Very little, however, of that very delicate group of pre-adolescents, the middle school age, of the first great emotions, of the first experiments in autonomy.
“Unfortunately just when they were ready for flight tests, the kids were locked up in the house»Reflects Roberta Paltrinieri, professor of Sociology of culture at Dams in Bologna. «We adults think about the” restart “, but first we must metabolize. How long will it take Riccardo to overcome the pain of looking at that garden where once, a year before, which for him is an eternity, he enjoyed himself so much? Pre-adolescence is a phase of transition, of training, but that gym has failed ».
A film about preteens
A phase that is also told by a new TV series broadcast on Netflix, Di4ri, where the protagonists are precisely the pupils of a second grade, struggling with first loves (even gay), exclusion from the group, bullying, betrayed friendship and a constant: the disinterest of adults.
The psychotherapist Alberto Rossetti adds: «The strong sense of loneliness that emerges from the film was already there before. There were parents who supervised their children and accompanied them to school even though they were already grown-ups, and there were video games that kept them at home. The pandemic has projected these kids without gradualness into adulthood, skipping that phase of life in which the image of oneself is built through relationships between peers “. With what consequences?
Stefano Vicari, who directs the Child Neuropsychiatry Operational Unit at the Bambin Gesù Hospital in Rome, and edited the book together with Silvia Di Vara Children, adolescents and Covid-19 (Erickson editions), is quite worried: “Access to the emergency room for suicide attempts or self-harm is not decreasing at all. Covid has exasperated and exploded problems such as eating disorders or the use of alcohol and cannabinoids – continuous, not sporadic – since the sixth grade, now much earlier than in the past. I would add the lack of sleep; today 11-year-olds sleep on average two hours less than their parents at their age, because they chat, play, watch videos. The result is that in the morning they are tired, nervous. There is an increase in isolation, many are unable to leave even after the end of the pandemic, parents do not know how to do it. Relationships protect; if they are missing, one feels more fragile“.
The mental health of preteens and children
On the other hand, and one cannot disagree, there is no real attention to the psychological well-being of children and young people. Local services are fewer and fewer, “they are often privatized”, adds Vicari, “without thinking about the consequences: the unsolved problems become chronic and today’s children, as adults, will cost more to the National Health Service”.
From “Nothing wrong”, by Gabriele Gianni and Davide Barletti.
The Town Hall psychologist
Between Riccardo who takes refuge from the world in his bedroom, Lara and Katia who dance with each other, Carmen who plays with the reflections of the mirrors, Gaia who in front of the camera, in the classroom, reflects on the passage of time with a depth that leaves you amazed, we have to think that yes, we adults, too busy with our “restart”, have forgotten about them, and we have not grasped the request – perhaps silent, but evident – for help. Fortunately, there is some initiative.
Municipality 9 of Milan, for example, has launched a tender aimed at those who, in the 10-25 year range, need psychological support. «Faced with yet another government bonus for roller shutters, scooters, air conditioners and the like, we thought we had to intervene. The message could not get across that no one would take care of them, in a moment of such great fatigue, ”says president Anita Pirovano. «We are the most present in the area and we don’t want to turn the other way. What we can do is offer a 3-4 meeting service to intervene on explosive needs, such as eating disorders or depression, or the isolation of the hikikomori, the children who withdraw from the world and lock themselves up in the room. We were the first, the call is closing in the next few days ». Then came the state psychologist bonus (without age limits, and parameterized on the ISEE), and others from local authorities. “We have the pulse of the situation, we think that many guys still need support,” Pirovano adds. “They were brave,”.
From “Nothing wrong”, by Gabriele Gianni and Davide Barletti.
The children recovered earlier
In the suburbs, the post-Covid emergency is mainly linked to early school leaving, which manifests itself in middle school. When the schools reopened, many didn’t show up. An extensive work of mending relationships is what the non-profit organization has been carrying out since the 1990s Pontedincontro al Laurentino 38outskirts (known precisely for the bridges that connect the neighborhood) south of Rome, considered somewhat the Scampia of the capital, with a school dropout rate, according to local associations, which reaches 39 percent, against a national average of 13 (Eurostat 2020 data). “After these two years, the discomfort is strong, many kids have locked themselves up at home and have never left,” says Sara Panucci, at the forefront with the non-profit organization. “In the afternoon workshops we had about twenty pre-adolescents; today, only children up to 4th grade, who have recovered better. The others have disappeared ».
To try to bring them back to their lost normality, Pontedincontro has put in place a series of initiatives, thanks to the network with other realities in the area created by Alta Frequency, a project funded by Con i Bambini. “We need to give space, create opportunities for aggregation. We have a web radio, podcasts, our Little Laurentian orchestra for those aged 8 and over, the Ugly Girls workshop that hooks up the most disadvantaged teenagers. We try to create moments of leisure and serenity. Families need it, but especially pre-adolescents. They are the most fragile ».
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