Il Pilastro

About the film

Built in the 1960s on Bologna’s outskirts, Il Pilastro was a housing neighborhood mean to accommodate internal migrants arriving from the countryside to work in the flourishing post-war industry. Isolated in the city’s periphery and lacking basic infrastructure, it took a strong community mobilisation to achieve improvements to the urban plan. Even so, it didn’t take long for the neighborhood to become stigmatised. Over time, the media cemented Pilastro’s reputation as a troubled area, first targeting southern Italians and later migrant communities. Il Pilastro is a layered portrait of this neighborhood through the voices of people who have known it for years: residents, community organisers, activists, theater makers, scholars and more.