"In Italia"

The other night we were out celebrating Marcus' birthday and a video came on the screen to the song 'In Italia' by Fabri Fibra, an Italian artist/rapper. It was a remixed video done in collaboration with another Italian artist Gianna Nannini. I was captivated by the words and the images so when I got home I watched it again and was really moved.

Fibra paints a pretty dark picture of his country, something most Italians are not averse to doing. In this song and video he captures things that we've seen and experienced here. It is interesting to me to note that if Fibra were to take my position and go around to churches to raise support for the vision we have, citing the needs he sees in Italy, there would be very little difference. He mentions astrology, mafia, corruption, violence and empty religion.

I suppose the difference is that he leaves his viewers with a sense of hopelessness, emphasized by giving the screen the 'double bird' at the very end. I'm captivated by the imagery, both visual and lexical, of this auto-critical poem about 'la bella italia'. The video starts and ends in a therapist's office - we know so many people here who visit psychiatrists and therapists for personal and relational struggles - the therapist in the end switching with the patient and telling her to come back next week. Also serving as bookends, Fabri is shown walking through a cemetery while choral 'churchy' voices are heard in the background as the lines of his rap break in and fade out. The refrain, sung by Gianna goes something like this:

"There are things no one will tell you...
there are things no one will give you...
you were born and buried here
you were born and buried here
born in the country of half-truths
Where will you flee?"

"Ci sono cose che nessuno ti dirà…
ci sono cose che nessuno ti darà…
sei nato e morto qua
sei nato e morto qua
nato nel paese delle mezze verità
Dove fuggi?"

Ready to watch it? May it open your eyes. May it bring you to your knees and make you cry out with us to the Father for the real church to rise up and bring hope and color and life 'in Italia'.