Made by the film collective of Marco Bellocchio, Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia, and Stefano Rulli (see also La Macchina Cinema, May 24), this internationally acclaimed documentary treats a new movement in Italy to reintegrate long-term mental patients into the mainstream by letting them work in factories and live with families. “In this film,” state the filmmakers, “we tried to let those who have suffered under forced institutionalization speak for themselves, and to relate the processes by which they became conscious of their oppression. We attempted to explore the class nature of their oppression, to show how definitions of ‘chronic mental illness' must be the concern of all citizens, and not just that of psychiatrists and other specialists.”
The film concentrates on three young men who have spent most of their lives in mental institutions; it explores their attitudes, and those of their families and co-workers, toward their reintegration.
“Fit to Be Untied is a passionate and deeply humanist documentary...such as is rarely made, one that does not rely on ‘expert' testimony to give it credibility and which relies instead on the subjects themselves.... Bellocchio and his co-workers make films out of a deep-seated commitment to their subjects and to the cinema, refusing to let economic restrictions stifle their output. It is the scope of this commitment which marks the film and infuses it with a love and understanding for all things human....” --Rene Balcer, The Georgian