Lavorare Con Lentezza (Radio Alice) (2004)

Radio Alice / Working Slowly

Wu Ming is also credited as co-writers for the Italian film Lavorare con lentezza (aka Radio Alice), directed by Guido Chiesa, released in Italy in 2004.

The original title means “Working slowly” and cites a protest song, a popular leftist anthem in the 1970s: “Work slowly / And effortlessly / Work may hurt you / And send you to the hospital / Where there’s no bed left / And you may even die. / Work slowly / And effortlessly / Health is priceless.” (Translated by Wu Ming)

The film is set during an actual student uprising that paralysed Bologna for several days in March 1977. Several narrative threads are woven around Radio Alice, the station run by the “creative wing” (the so-called “Mao-Dadaists”) of the radical Autonomia movement. In the morning of March 11 a brawl involving radical and catholic students escalated to a full-scale riot in the university district. The Carabinieri riot squad attacked and shot down a 25-year-old student called Francesco Lorusso. As a result, thousands of students and activists stormed the centre of the town, clashing with the police and throwing molotov cocktails. On March 13 the premises of Radio Alice were invaded and vandalised by the police, the station was shut down and every member of the staff was arrested. The film tells the story mixing real anecdotes with semi-fictional characters.

Radio Alice has won several awards and prizes at movie festivals all over Europe, including the Marcello Mastroianni Award for the Best Young Actors at the 2004 Venice Film Festival and the First Prize at the 2005 Festival de Cinema Politic in Barcelona, Spain.