Regardless of which part of the world we live in, there is always another place that awaits us. Especially when we are at the age of rebellion, when we want to explore, discover something new, that’s when a new country is the right place to begin our journey. But when we reach that long-awaited place, we expect it to bring us peace and satisfaction, isn’t it? Oh well, history has already proven legend begins with legendary people who, in the end, do what they promise to leave us an important lesson that the best and most peaceful place is there where we are not…
“No Country For Youth” directed by Giovanni Veronesi follows the young and ambitious Sandro who lives with his father in Italy. One day he meets Luciano, with whom he becomes very close friends. Exploring their options for the future, Luciano offers Sandro to travel to Cuba where they can open a restaurant on the beach with WiFi and cook food for Cubans. The plan sounded so great that Sandro asks his father for his inheritance, but only pay of it – 2,000 euros to be able to begin his trip. The goodwill nature of the father gives his only son 20,000 to fulfill his dream, after all, life is lived to the fullest when we are young and still have energy and not when we get older. The sunny Cuba is kind to many, but some will have to find that right path to get where they want to go, which Sandro and Luciano are hoping to achieve…
Things do not go smoothly when Sandro and Luciano arrive in Cuba when Nora, a young and charming woman greets them, calling Luciano as Pavarotti. When she realizes that he was not a famous tenor, she still offers the warm Cuban hospitality by offering one room for two. Well, it’s because she somehow misunderstands Luciano, thinking the two friends are a gay couple. However, everything changes from an ideal situation to disturbing when Luciano finds himself as a street fighter, while Sandro discovers his creative side – to write a novel where he will put everything he will go through in Cuba, ups and downs, through what we will see how generations after generations abandon their country for a bright future some of them will never end up finding.
“No Country for Youth” is an exceptionally deep movie about the struggle of youth and their way to find their true home in this world. Beautifully performed, it’s a genuine and honest look into what our home country, no matter how advanced it can be, always fails to give us the required prosperity in order for us to remain in it. it’s about high hopes and dreams that never come true. But in the end, it is about the lost lives, gained opportunities, and the true home that never exists. But it is also about love and friendship between the two young men that will inspire each other in their own way. It just happened that one of them will have his own journey to continue – like legends it will be left to be told in a book but we’ll never know for sure how it ends.