cinematography
Antonio Morabito
editing
Stefano De Santis
Antonio Morabito

music
Alessandro Sgarito
sound
Silvia Moraes
(sound designer)
Antonio Morabito

with
Stefano Romani
Irene Turati
Sandro Bussu
Carla Parsi
Gli operatori e gli utenti del Centro diurno La bottega delle idee – ASL RM2 Progetto laboratori per persone con disabilità – Municipio RM2

production
Vertigo Film
producer
Tony Campanozzi

Italian press office
Nicoletta Gemmi
nicoletta.gemmi@gmail.com

Is dodging all the annoyances of daily life and shielding yourself from hassles of any kind enough to make you happy? A seventy-year-old professor believes he finally is just that. He has a lovely home, a decent pension, friends to have some laughs with, and a lady with whom he spends some quality time. He devotes himself exclusively to the agreeable – until his life is turned upside down by the arrival of his daughter, whose marriage is on the rocks, and his two noisy grandchildren. New worries and fears now, yet new bonds as well. So begins his foray into the love lives of others and also his own, with the life lesson to the effect that love is always worth living, despite the troubles, sacrifices, and tribulations it brings. It’s a film that meditates on love and the driving instinct of human beings to merge their own destinies with those of others, with all that entails: hard work, but also its satisfactions, and the feeling of having truly lived.

2025 Indietro così! (doc)
2018 Rimetti a noi i nostri debiti
2014 Il venditore di medicine
2012 Che cos’è un Manrico (doc)
2009 Non son l’uno per cento (doc)
2003 Cecilia
2000 Cecilia (short)
1998 Bac Blu (short)
1996 Ulna e ragno (short)
1996 Il grande Zot (short)

“Full Speed Backward! intimately observes a world shunted to the sidelines, that of disability and mental illness, which may be talked about and represented, yet its daily reality remains little known. Stefano, who experiences this world day in and day out, has sworn not to turn out the umpteenth Integrated Theater production. He is not a director and the cast has no actors; there are no auditions to do, nor can he pick and choose the participants, since they themselves have no choice, but are okayed for the program by the social services. What Stefano does want to create is theater with no capital ‘t’: because what should be the capital is the work that goes into getting the show ready, and the way it is put together. In the end, the real show, ironically, is the rehearsals themselves; the show’s opening night becomes a rehearsal as well, maybe even the first in a new series of steps to get it on stage. There is no linear direction forwards in the Theater of Going Backwards.” (Antonio Morabito)

Antonio Morabito studied directing in Rome and screenwriting in Paris. His short film, Ulna e ragno, was selected by Nanni Moretti for the Sacher Festival, while his fourth was awarded Best Short Film at the Torino Film Festival and made the rounds of the leading international festivals, such as Clermont-Ferrand and the Berlinale Talent Campus. He also made two previous documentaries, Non son l’uno per cento and Che cos’è un Manrico. Amedeo Pagani produced Morabito’s feature films Il venditore di medicine, winner of fourteen awards at over fifty film festivals, and Rimetti a noi i nostri debiti, the closing film at the Warsaw Film Festival, and the first Italian film to be distributed by Netflix.