How Italian television explores the furrow of youthful torments
The success of the British Netflix series “Adolescence” has spread to Italy. It has prompted “Il Venerdì di Repubblica” to examine the picture Italian series paint of younger generations. The weekly magazine interviewed creators and health professionals who have helped “break the taboo surrounding mental health” among teenagers.
In recent years, television series have broken the taboo surrounding mental health. They have chronicled the psychological distress of young people, their crumbling balance, their fragility fueled by unattainable role models promoted by social media. A pain that isn't physical, but is no less intense for that, provoking self-destructive behavior and raging rage.
The current series, raw and uncompromising, is Adolescence , on Netflix , which features a “very ordinary” 13-year-old boy, capable of stabbing a classmate or asking his psychologist: “ Do you like me? ”
Another poignant series on the same theme is the one directed by Francesco Bruni, entitled We All Want to Be Saved [2022-2024, on Netflix], and taken from an autobiographical novel by Daniele Mencarelli [translated into French by Globe, he received the Strega Giovanni Prize in 2020, the Italian equivalent of the Prix Goncourt des lycéens]. The series follows young Daniele (played by Federico Cesari) who, after a crisis, finds himself hospitalized for a week in a psychiatric ward and subjected to compulsory medical treatment. There he discovers a humanity he does not know
Courrier International
