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Rating: Francesca Comencini is the daughter of Luigi Comencini, a famous and acclaimed director active from the 1940s to the early '90s.
"Mi Piace Lavorare (Mobbing)" ("I Like to Work (Mobbing)") is a 2003 film about mobbing, dry, clean, descriptive, and full of realism, depicting the fragility of a woman living in a very delicate situation and forced to face an absurd circumstance that pushes her to the limits of endurance. The female protagonist in this delicate dramatic realist manifesto of today's society is played by the surprising Nicoletta Braschi.
It happens that a company, for strategic reasons, finds itself needing to review its structure, cut excessive costs, optimize work, and reduce waste, and thus must "let go of" personnel deemed too expensive or "obsolete". This practice is often conducted with the aim of inducing the victim to leave their job voluntarily, thus avoiding dismissal (which could cause embarrassment to the company) or as retaliation following non-shared behaviors (such as reports to superiors or to the outside world about irregularities in the workplace), or still for the victim’s refusal to conform to immoral proposals (for example, sexual offers or requests to carry out operations contrary to ethical or deontological prohibitions) or illegal ones (for example, requests to do, or omit doing, in violation of regulations).
The term mobbing was coined in the early seventies by ethologist Konrad Lorenz to describe a particular behavior of some animal species that surround one of their own and attack it noisily in groups to drive it away from the flock. The female protagonist, Braschi, a divorced woman who must tighten the belt to make ends meet (another credible and well-drawn reality), gradually ends up being abandoned by her colleagues who do not show her the slightest solidarity while the company bounces her between absurd tasks, stripping her of dignity and credibility.
But what surprises about this comedy is the dry aspect with which the story, precisely without embellishments or too much sugar, is told. The photography convinces, the characters convince, from the managers to the workers, and Braschi herself convinces without any need for dramatic showmanship, relying solely on strong expressiveness. Notable is the gradual transformation of the actress, conveying the anguish of the situation, and the sense of suffocation. A film that has the form of a document, a social denunciation, shedding light on an existing and persistent situation in the company system that has not been explored cinematically until now. Mobbing as a disease, a flaw in our society that can truly destroy existence, robbing people of their dignity.
An effective film that makes an impact and, despite a somewhat slow pace, is compelling to watch.
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