A scuola – Un cas d’école

“I don’t want the umpteenth film about Neapolitan children. I want to show the teachers who stand in the front line day after day. The teachers who question themselves, listen and spare nothing in their search for a model school. Those who are resigned to the idea that life is not ‘equality for all’, and that if someone fails it is because they either have no will or are not capable of success.” The Cortese secondary school is situated in the centre of the Pazzigno district. This is a well-known area as, in 1997, the police force launched a massive assault on flats that were illegally occupied by the Reale family from the Neapolitan Mafia, who had driven out the original tenants. “I want the film to show a school in Naples, in an area where schooling is given no value, as is perhaps the case in problem areas in other large Western cities.” (Leonardo Di Costanzo)