Sindrome Italia

by Ettore Mengozzi

Biografilm Italia

Doc, World Premiere, First Film

(Italy, Romania / 2024 / 65’)

#scelgochisono

In 2005, two Ukrainian psychiatrists began to observe recurring symptoms of psychological distress in many Eastern European women returning from Italy: insomnia, anxiety, depression, panic attacks and in the most severe hallucinations and suicidal instincts. These women had one characteristic in common: they all worked as caregivers. The two psychiatrists called this Italy syndrom condition.
The documentary will follow the lives of Corina, a woman affected by this syndrome after years of working in Italy and who is slowly trying to build a new life for herself after so much suffering, and that of Natalia, a woman who is instead experiencing on her own skin the harsh conditions of working as a caregiver in Italy: isolated, thousands of miles away from her children, alone. Two women who reflect each other over and over again and who struggle for a different future.