Toni, My Father

Directed by

Anna Negri

When Anna was fourteen years old, her father was arrested and accused of being the secret head of Italian terrorism, charges of which he would be acquitted, years later. After four years in prison and fifteen in exile, Toni Negri became a world-class political philosopher, and his arrest merely one chapter in an extraordinary life. On Anna, though, that story left an indelible impression, and this film becomes a tale of the traumas of two generations, both personal and collective. Anna and Toni meet up in Venice, in front of a film camera, a friend of theirs doing the filming. Toni knows it will be his last time in Venice – and dies six months later. Anna, who has never lived with her father since his arrest, now tries to make up for lost time. And it is in this new dimension of a voyage of mutual discovery that we witness, as conveyed in a few gestures and choice words, any last doubts and misconceptions fade away, and the real meaning of two such complicated lives become clear.