Daniele Lucheti, the director of this surprising feature, does an amazing job in the way he developed the material he wrote in collaboration with Stefano Rulli and Sandro Petraglia. First, and foremost, is Mr. Luchetti's view that no matter what happens, a family comes together in good times and in bad ones.The man at the center of the story, Claudio, a construction foreman, working on a housing complex, is ambitious. He is married and has two young boys. His wife Elena is expecting a baby so he wants to go on his own because he will stand to make a profit because of his experience. In order to fulfill his dream, he must borrow money. His next door neighbor, a paralyzed man with connections to shady characters proves to be the source he goes to secure a loan.Claudio employs a lot of illegal workers from Eastern Europe, now making Italy their home. The savings with these men are good for what he wants to do, but he is at a disadvantage because the people he hires are not as skilled as his Italian counterparts. Prior to undertaking his venture, he makes the gruesome discovery of finding a dead man on an elevator shaft. The dead is from Rumania so his boss decides to bury him without going to the police.To his surprise, Claudio is visited by Gabriela, the owner of a seaside cafe. She has brought Andrei, a young man, whose father was the man Claudio found in the shaft. He pretends to know nothing about the disappearance, but feels sorry for the youth, whom he offers a job in his new project. Elena, his wife, goes into labor. The difficult delivery ends up killing her. The question for Claudio is how is he going to cope in raising two boys and an infant.To add to Claudio's problems, the building he has taken control in building runs into delays because of the unskilled people he employed. He finds out he is sadly behind with no prospect of finishing the housing development. Caludio's family rally around him in support. So when things got rough, they come to his help."La nostra vita" is a life affirming film with a positive message. Claudio realizes he has taken more than he should have, but his youth and enthusiasm meet whatever comes his way to face challenges and hurdles he encounters. Elio Germano does a terrific job for director Luchetti. This young actor clearly understood what Claudio was all about. Mr. Germano keeps impressing as he becomes one of the best actors of his generation. He is the whole picture and he deserves recognition for carrying the film on his shoulders, no small achievement. The supporting cast includes actors of the stature of Raoul Bova, an excellent performer, seen here as Piero.We shall look forward Daniele Luchetti's future ventures in the cinema.

full of good intentions. too large, almost confuse, chaotic, stage for many characters and acts.seductive. for its nuances. interesting. for family links as bricks. power. for the image of present Italy. sad. for the steps of sense search. sweet. for the colors of love. strange. for the presence of past as seed of a kind of happiness. romantic. for the courage to discover feelings, errors, hopes of an ordinary character who may be each man. profound. for the science to travel in the womb of unspoken words. beautiful. for its honesty, for a lot of image, for fragile gestures, for the dust and beach and kids and a fight without recipes or winner. nice. for presence of Raoul Bova in strange role and for problem of Romanians in Italy as not minor detail. out of description. for science to tell a story as mirror of each existence.

First off the bat i really like this movie. I read in a review it was about human flexibility of coping with hardship and they were absolutely right. The movie gets to you the moment one starts watching it, the story is like a book that you want to finish in one swing. The movie La nostra Vita is a movie with a distinct theme: Survival and Hope. At first the movie may be a little hard to keep up with as one just gets thrown in between an Italian family and their famous rapid conversations. However, at the important key points in the story the appropriate time is taken and the results in many beautiful scenes. For this movie some experience with film theatre style movies is required as one has to stay focused and there are some scenes with small fragile play at times through which the real story is told. For those with the patience there are many rewards: There are raw emotions, deep scenes and especially haunting ones. It dawned upon me after leaving the theatre that there were a lot of ideas the director wants you to see. The main idea this movie made clear to me is the sense of awareness and feel of duty a single dad of 3 can have, despite his errors and flaw in character, in order to save his family. Small subthemes like corruption discrimination, raising of children and relations with family are present and make the movie a nice whole. For me as a non-Italian I really like the opportunity i got to peek into another culture and to hear and experience their language. On a small sidenote the movie suffers from not so great music and is at times a bit chaotic which unfortunately lowered my score to an 8.For anyone looking for a real movie experience this will be a nice recommendation!

I saw this movie in Vancouver, after having seen 15 movies selected from across the spectrum. I thoroughly enjoyed the script, the acting and the direction. I am very sensitive to generalizations of race or culture, and resent themes that play to a lowest common denominator and therefore I was constantly being relieved when an obvious theme of Italian culture - like loyalty among family was given a modern and genuine lift...at every stage I thought the script presented us with the obvious assumptions we have of Italians and then took us to a more subtle and thoughtfull response - never more so than when the character of Claudio confronts the young Romanian son of the immigrant worker and tries to tell him 'what's what' in the real world. The young man, more wise and thoughtful of the two forces Claudio to re-think his position. Personal growth, hope - what else can we want? My only complaint? The theme song played one too many times for me....