Almost 20 years after her most famous work The Night Porter (1974), Legendary Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani challenged herself and public perception with 1993 drama Where Are You? I’m Here.
Gaetano Carotenuto plays Fausto, a young banker from an upper-class family was born deaf, but has been raised to fit in with the hearing world by his domineering mother (Gaetano Carotenuto), who views it as an embarrassment. Forced into a profession he doesn’t like and a relationship he doesn’t want, he meets Elena (Chiara Caselli), a student from a working-class background who is also deaf. The pair fall in love, and fight to break free from the restrictions placed on them by the world.
At the film’s heart is an endearing story of two people finding each other. Outwardly, Fausto and Elena have very little in common, but the elation of the characters bonding both through experience and personality develops in a beautiful way. Their connection is portrayed as more than two people who share the same worldview, and are developed beyond the tropes of some movies on this topic. This sustains the plot through its more wandering elements, and creates emotional stakes beyond their search for respect and independence.
The representation of the experience of deaf characters feels dated in comparison to, say, 2021 Oscar winner CODA (Sian Heder, 2021), but the sentiment about struggling to fit in a world not built for you remains the same. Cavani also explores the idea of disability being suppressed, to the point of abuse.
This is embodied in Bonaiuto’s performance, which is unsettling in that she isn’t outwardly a monster, but behaves monstrously toward her child. Fausto’s mother appears ashamed of her son’s condition, and a flashback scene where she physically rebukes him as a child for signing can be very hard to watch. While hard to watch, it’s a brave portrayal of the harmful ignorance that sadly will still feel relevant to today’s audiences.
Within the plot is also a scathing criticism of Italy’s education system, which at the time made the provision of specialist teachers a right by law, although few establishments abided by it. Through Elena, we see the consequences of that denial – an intelligent and passionate person forced to fight through obstacles to simply gain the kind of access many take for granted. It leads to some incredibly moving moments, and strengthens the love story between the protagonists.
As well as sadness, there’s also an expression of beauty within the way Fausto experiences the world. Taught by his aunt to enjoy music through vibrations, we see how he finds beauty in art through other means. Instead of asking audiences to look at the deaf subjects with tragedy, but Cavani invites them to learn another perspective.
Where Are You? I’m Here may be showing its age in places, but ultimately offers an affecting human story that dares to ask profound and meaningful questions.
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