Dreams from Strangers (2015) - full transcript

This is the story of a man
who never stopped loving

because love goes beyond things.

According to the definition,
free diving is a sport in which a man plunges

into deep seas holding his breath

without the support of any breathing apparatus.

It is an extreme sport,
which requires good physical preparation

but most of all a strong mental predisposition.

In underwater diving, you swim down several meters

and if your mind has not reached a state of quiet

then unpleasant trouble can happen.

You can be physically strong



and still you might not be able
to control and convey your power.

You need a high level of balance
which is not merely a physical value.

Once you've achieved self-control,
you are vigilant and conscious

but also calm and relaxed at the same time.

When you swim down into the deep,

you feel as if the world closes up above you

and another brand new one opens all of a sudden.

I am a drop in the sea

I am part of it.

I am water too.

A young girl, persecuted by evil criminals,

writes to Maciste asking him to help her.

The appointment is at the old bridge.

I hope you get my messages,
give me your news, I miss you!



I come from a small town in the North of Italy

a town of few people and few ambitions.

People of my age, here,
either marry or move abroad

where they can have more chances for their future.

But me, I remained.

I am linked to my earth and my sea.

My only goal is to stay submerged in water
as long as possible.

Only those who have tried it
can understand what I am saying.

So many hours every day
and so many days every week

consecrated to training.

Through physical effort,
we can change and transform ourselves.

To me, water is a world, my world.

In all these years,
I have had the good fortune to travel.

Each country has its own history,
traditions and beliefs.

Traveling builds you up and makes you stronger.

It destroys the walls inside your mind

and it is only in that moment

that you realize you are truly
beginning your journey.

After Madrid, Barcelona and Berlin,
the long-awaited moment had come

the most important swimming competition in Russia.

After a short stop in Munich,

I arrived in St. Petersburg
as part of the Italian delegation.

I had never been there before.

What it makes it interesting to go compete abroad

is that you never know
in which city you may end up

and you are often hit by the beauty
and the history of those places.

St. Petersburg does hit you

with its impressive stories
and its breathtaking architecture.

Unfortunately the results
were not what I hoped for.

All those months and years of hard work
for a few minutes of competition.

There you put everything on the line.

On the other hand, you can't always excel
and perfection can also get boring.

But this is the fun part.

If a dream has so many obstacles,
it means that is the right one.

- Hi.
- Hi.

- May I?
- Sure!

- I am Massimo.
- I know.

I am the interpreter.

I did the simultaneous interpreting
for the press conference.

Yes, okay. I am sorry.
I was afraid I had made a mistake.

No.

- I am Vladimir.
- Nice to meet you.

What are you drinking? Beer?

Yes.

Why?

Here a true man must drink real, pure vodka.

- At lunch time?
- You're in Russia.

- Here.
- No, thank you. I am not used to it.

I don't drink alcohol.

You don't?

Yes, well, a glass of beer
never killed anyone, did it.

Well, it does if you don't drink alcohol!

Then we can say that it is better
to not drink when in training.

- Then you are a fake non-drinker!
- Yes, right!

- Cretino?
- Cretino.

- But is it a bad word?
- No, you can use it.

Well, it is even used too often!

All jokes aside, you speak Italian well.

Thank you!

With all the studying I did...

You know, I have never been to Italy.

I took lessons,

but I would really love to go
to your country one day or another.

Why don't you do it?

If it up to me, I would be there already.

It's a bit complicated, Massimo.

I live with my mother and she is very ill.

Moreover, I'm continuing to study
and money never lasts.

You could find another job,
maybe somewhere else than here.

Where? And do what?

Don't you have a dream?

Yes! I'd like become translator
in a publishing house.

Come on! Cool!

See, maybe you will find your way somewhere.

And then what happens?

Do you believe that happiness
is deserting your home?

And for what then?

For yourself!

For your file, for your future!

No.

I believe that deserting your own country

is like deserting your origin and your identity.

What are you doing tonight?

I must finish a translation for a friend,

but we can meet after dinner if you want.

Okay.

Will you take me to a typical Russian place?

Yes.

- I'll make you drink real, plain vodka.
- Okay, I'm in.

"After my father died,
my mother fell into a serious depression."

The evildoers want to take
the inheritance of the girl’s family,

destroying their whole history.

"I fell into a mysterious lethargy
that did not alter my consciousness."

But what do people do here after dinner
aside from drinking plain vodka?

Massimo that's prejudicial.

Then in Italy you only eat pizza
and play mandolin with the mafia...

Stop it, I understood! Jesus!
Russians, how proud you are.

Russians, how proud you are!

Do you hear it?

- It's music!
- Yeah!

Shall we climb over?

No, are you crazy? It's private property!

That is nonsense!

I know why you say this.
It's because you can't do it.

Of course I can do it. I can't climb over a gate?

Maybe you can't do it.

I don't think you realize
who you are dealing with.

Grab this!

No, Massimo.

Do you see? You can't do it,
I told you! Come down!

Italian!

Help me, though!

Can you see anything? What's there?

No, there is nothing!

Sorry!

Your clothes are dirty.

No, Massimo!

Italian guy, espresso coffee?

Espresso, uh?

Isn't it okay?

You wouldn't drink coffee,
would you drink cappuccino?

- I can make cappuccino too.
- No, it's okay, thank you!

But next time I'll make cappuccino.

When I was a child,
my parents used to bring me here.

I have wonderful memories.

Sometimes I come back here
when things start getting bad.

Where are your parents now?

My mother is here, my father isn't here anymore.

He ran away with another woman when I was child.

I've never heard from him since then.

He used to call me for my birthday,
but recently not even that.

My mother is very ill,
she needs very expensive treatments.

This is why I cannot leave, I must stay with her.

So, when I feel sad and want to flee the situation

I come here, sit on these couches
and start traveling.

Well, at least the ticket is cheap.

I've had few love stories in my live,
and they all ended up badly.

Someone said that you fall in love
once in your lifetime

but I don't think it's true.

I thought that all was over

that I missed the train of love

but I was wrong.

We are surrounded by people who want to be loved

and people who are willing to love us.

We only need to keep in mind
that everything starts from us.

We are energy and so we attract
situations and people.

Energy is not created, nor is it destroyed.

Everything changes.

And I needed to transform myself
into something better too

and that was happening, thanks to Vladimir.

"...to me, Maciste! Help!"

...really, is it true?

This is wonderful!

Yes. It takes me a lot of time.

In fact it seems very difficult.

How did you do it?

Here.

No, really!

Thank you.

♪ Some people get lost ♪

♪ Some people can't see ♪

♪ Some will live his life searching
for the right clue ♪

♪ Hope someone is you ♪

♪ I collected few precious days ♪

♪ They slip through my fingers
like candy in a lake ♪

♪ What's point of living like a king
with a would you never share ♪

♪ Nothing matters there ♪

♪ And I can't quit with the faith in life ♪

♪ I can't crawl the space and time ♪

♪ I can't die... ♪

♪ Just to be close to you tonight ♪

♪ It's a well known story ♪

♪ Too much pressure, always make you pout ♪

♪ Keep yourself every minutes every day
just by sitting in the soft couch ♪

♪ Can't you see I'm here ♪

♪ It's me ♪

♪ I was afraid of my shadow ♪

♪ I was learnt to keep the treasure safe ♪

♪ Is always the life I'm supposed to live ♪

♪ Change the color of the skin makes it
not the cell to be the one you were ♪

♪ But live, live ♪

♪ And I quit with the faith in live ♪

♪ I can't crawl the space and time ♪

♪ I can't die... ♪

♪ Just to be close to you ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

♪ Tonight ♪

In such a situation again.

I was in love.

We were beyond space and time.

In an independent place, not mine, not his.

Totally ours.

I remember that there were no barriers or limits.

We were connected. Glances would suffice.

You have to fight to get what you love.

Maciste hired to find the girl.

But the way to go isn't always easy.

We are prisoners of our beliefs.

Your family know about you?

Yes.

It has been a few years now.

I told my brother first.

We were so drunk.

But you know, I thought it was
the right moment to tell him,

so I did it.

How did it go?

Very well. I couldn’t believe it.

You know,

I think that people who truly love you

will eventually appreciate the effort you make
in telling them who you are.

And then one day,
they will be even grateful to you.

Your mother?

Does she know?

No, are you crazy? I could never tell her.

Most of all she doesn't deserve this now
with all she is going through.

Well, I think this is exactly
the right moment to tell her.

And she already knows.

Mothers always know.

I don't know, and if I lack the courage?

And I think about her reaction.
What if she didn't understand? What should I do?

Come on, she will understand, you'll see.

Just wait for the right moment to tell her.

See, I think that we must be honest and genuine

with the people who love us.

Yes, maybe, but we are not in Italy here, Massimo.

We're in Russia.

Today hatred has prevailed and moreover fear
has increased since Putin's law.

There are homophobic groups
who wait in ambush for gay people

only to beat them up and see their blood.

Respect comes from the mind,
but hatred comes from the heart.

No feeling is completely under our own control.

But I think that we need to fight

- in order to change things and be free.
- Free?

You talk of freedom,
you don't even know what freedom really is!

We're afraid to leave home,
afraid that someone might follow us.

Anxiety and panic attacks are an everyday story.

I...

I wake up at night and can't sleep like before.
I'm even scared of my own shadow.

And you come and talk to me about freedom!
You don't even know what freedom is!

I'm sorry.

I didn't want to judge you.

Hey, listen

I'm starving, aren't you?

Shall we have a bite to eat?

Well, okay.

And maybe this headache I've had
since this morning will cease.

You made me drink too much!

Me? You didn't want to put the bottle down!

Sorry if I didn't put the bottle down.

Evidently I have been charmed
by the true Russian vodka.

You know nothing about St. Pertersburg, do you?

Did you manage to have a tour?

No, I had no time.

Today is my only day off

and tomorrow I'm going back to Italy.

Well you can't leave
without visiting the city then!

The Church of he Saviour on Spilled Blood

is the famous building linked to St. Petersburg.

Inside it there are no religious paintings,
only mosaics.

Religious paintings were prohibited
during the Soviet period.

The mosaics are wonderful.
You must visit it the next time you come.

You Italians have so many things

but no city like St. Petersburg.

Ah, there is St. Isaac

the city's most important cathedral.

You can enjoy a wonderful view from there!

If you want to have an idea of the city,
you must take a boat ride

especially if you do not have much time.
You'll see the most important places.

There is a bridge called the Bridge of Kisses

because lovers think that kissing
under this bridge will bond them forever.

Oh, my God!

There is a movable bridge

symbol of the city.

In 2010, a group of artists

did something that did not please
the Russian leaders...

An action against the Russian system.

Well, I don't agree
with this kind of demonstration.

Putin is not who you think, you know?

He did some good things, too.

Yeah?

Like what?

For example, he avoided the war in Syria.

And dismantled Hassad chemical weapons.

You know what the true problem is?

The Nobel Prize.

No politician should win a Nobel Prize,

every politician defends his own interests.

Think about Obama,

he won the Nobel Prize for peace.

Obama?

He has continued the war
that Bush started in Iraq and Afghanistan

and who triggered
the war in Libya one year before.

Yeah, you're right.

We must not allow others to take our own identity.

Our people are ready to die for an ideal

and if you are ready to do,

so I think you'll see the results sooner or later.

We must never accept dreams from strangers.

That night I wasn't hurt
by the punches and kicks they gave us

but by the hatred imprisoned inside poor men.

Not even men

but beasts.

Homophobia is like a virus

which first infects cells

and then the entire body

up to the brain.

That was the last time I saw Vladimir.

Great deeds do not require force but perseverance.

There are people in life
that give you something you won't forget.

Even if you have met them for a short time
you will keep them inside your heart

forever by your side.

Vladimir is a genuine person

not afraid to say what he thinks.

Sometime it is easier to believe
in the image that others have of us

rather than accept who we truly are.

I still remember that morning.

Autumn was about to come.

I had sent messages,
friend requests in social networks

to no avail.

And then I read that letter.

It was the letter of a man who had suffered

as if time couldn't destroy that feeling
which does not allow us to love freely.

« My dearest boy.

This will assure you of my immortal,

my eternal love for you.

Tomorrow all will be over.

If prison and dishonor shall be my destiny,

think that my love for you and this idea

this even more divine belief
that you love me in return

will sustain me in my unhappiness

and will make me capable, I hope

of bearing my grief most patiently.

Since the hope

no, rather the certainty
of meeting you again in some world

is the goal and the encouragement
of my present life.

I must continue to live
in this world because of that.

Your love has broad wings and is strong.

Your love is the light of all my hours.

If fate is against us,

those who know not what love is will write,

I know that I have had
a bad influence upon your life.

If they do that,

you shall write,

you shall say in your turn, that it is not so.

Our love was always beautiful and noble

and if I have been the victim
of a terrible tragedy,

it is because the nature of that love
has not been understood.

In your letter this morning,
you said something which gives me courage.

I must remember it.

You write that it is my duty to you
and to myself to live

in spite of everything.

I think that is true.

I shall try and I shall do it.

I am so happy that you have gone away,

I know what that must have cost you.

I stretch out my hands towards you.

Oh, may I live to touch your hair and your hands.

I think that your love will watch over my life.

If I should die,

I want you to live a gentle,
peaceful existence somewhere

among flowers,

artwork,

books,

and a lot of work.

Try to let me hear from you soon.

I am writing you this letter
in the midst of great suffering.

Dearest boy,

sweetest of all young men,

most loved and most lovable.

Oh? Wait for me?

Wait for me?

I am

and have been ever since the day we met

yours devotedly

and with immortal love.

Oscar Wilde. ».

Don't accept dreams from strangers

DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR A BETTER WORLD