This episodic film describes the daily struggle for survival of modern nomads in Italy. Over the period of one year it follows the young artist Babooska, who runs a traveling circus with her family, on her odyssey through remote areas of the country. An unvarnished look behind the scenes of a microcosm on the fringes of society – beyond the usual stereotypes, without commentary, without interviews. ""Babooska" is strongly characterized by the art of montage. It attempts to make what is essential graspable without explanations from the figures or the authors, but merely by observing people and places. That and the concept of openness toward the material demand not only a great deal of patience and time, but above all sensitivity for the right distance to what is filmed and a strong feeling for rhythm. Again and again in the space of a year, the filmmakers and their camera followed the interlacing paths of the traveling circus Floricicchio through sleepy towns in central Italy. We see a cold and foggy Italy that has nothing to do with the tourism industry's clichés about sun and sea. "Babooska" is a road movie without kitschy travel images. It describes, with melancholy and humor, not only the modern nomads' dying way of life, but also the general human condition of being on a journey between a glorious past and an uncertain future, between despair and hope that life could always be like a 'modern, well-heated circus'." Günter Pscheider
Production + World Sales: Vento Film
Screenplay: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
Cinematographer, Producer: Rainer Frimmel
Sound: Tizza Covi
Editor: Tizza Covi
Cast: Babooska Gerardi, Michele Pellegrini, Azzurra Gerardi, Marina de Vincentis, Ciccio Gerardi, Patrizia Gerardi, Walter Saabel
Format/screen ratio: 35mm (shot on Super 16mm), 1:1.66, Color
Running time: 100 minutes, 25 frames/sec.
Language: Italian
