Gabriele Salvatores
Nirvana

"It had been a year since Lisa had left, and I was once again navigating a dark sea. I had emerged from it before, but this time I no longer had stars in my soul."

Jimi's voice introduces us to the futuristic (not so much) journey that Gabriele Salvatores mapped out in the now distant 1997. In Italy, it was not yet time for "Scusami ma ti devo sposare" and the bourgeois salons of Ozpetek's memory, not yet. We find ourselves in the urban conglomeration of any globalized and multi-ethnic city, one that has Arab, Japanese, Russian, and Italian neighborhoods. It often snows.

Solo (Diego Abatantuono) wakes up in a hovel. He finds a phone number in his pocket. He dials it, and a certain Maria, whom he says he has already seen, answers. A guy with purple hair appears behind him and shoots him with a futuristic pistol.

Solo, after waking up a second time in the same place, realizes he's in a video game. It is Jimi who created that virtual universe. The same Jimi searching for his girlfriend Lisa. The same Jimi wandering the conglomerate with a blind angel named Joystick (a fantastic Sergio Rubini). He will have to erase him. He will have to erase the game. Nirvana.

We are talking about the Search for Nirvana. The essence of spiritual peace. An incredible journey masterfully sketched by a Gabriele Salvatores never so inspired, eager to experiment with new paths. It is a journey towards awareness, interspersed with memorable stops, like the "John Barleycorn Must Die" by Traffic, or the extremely enigmatic yet significant ending.

Science fiction rendered to perfection. These computers are now everywhere. The bulletin of the narcotics for the next two days ("Bluecoc c'è...Dio se c'è...but you have to be careful because it's good but it hits you all at once, if you are having sex it doesn't matter, but if you are riding a bike...you're screwed!"), the psychologist from Okosama Star connected with a Thai psycho. Brilliant ideas.

It is the desire to experiment and to surprise.

A beautiful movie, which ended up too soon in oblivion, always underestimated. A pearl among the infinite nonsense of contemporary Italian cinema. Artistic content naturally not reciprocated by Italian critics. If only there were at least one movie like this a year.

"Do you see this?? This guy is the classy one! Listen, I accidentally killed you last time... if I let you go this time, does it change anything in this damn scheme yes or no?"

"Minchia se cambia!"