AllMovie

The youngest scion of Italy's Comencini filmmaking dynasty, Francesca Comencini, helms this historical documentary - a meditation on the role of factories over decades of Italian history. Comencini argues that Italian factories helped outline and delineate a social class devoted to altering the fabric of Italian society through industrialization; she also demonstrates that such factories housed entire communities for their workers, with the unexpected benefits of educational programs, social opportunities, entertainment and much more. In lieu of excoriating the capitalist system, Comencini pays homage to the various industrial workers who helped shape Italy, by creating a tapestry of individual lives and stories.