Sweet Dreams

When director Michele Apicella screens his newest movie in film clubs, auditoriums, cinemas, and even a convent, he faces a torrent of criticism, mainly that he hasn’t adequately represented the interests of farmers, housewives, and labourers. Meanwhile, work on his next film also takes a catastrophic turn. Titled “La mamma di Freud”, its lead character is a revenant of the famed psychoanalyst who, like the director himself, lives with his mother in a symbiotic love-hate relationship. On top of that, Michele has to ward off a rival who is making a musical about the 1968 student uprisings. When the two are pitted against each other on a TV game show, the situation takes on nightmarish dimensions. As does Michele’s reunion with a girlfriend who might, however, be purely imaginary. (Berlinale)