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Putting the spark back into a love affair: It is time to take leave of the worn-out pathways of German-Italian reporting. The initiative Va Bene?! puts verve back into our relationship with the dreamland of Italy and vice versa. Part of this is a lovingly ironic film by Bruno Bozzetto.

On holiday: Fritz leaves the hotel early in the morning. Well, he has to make use of every hour of the day. The map is his constant companion; always neatly folded in his rucksack. Fritz examines the map before heading off. It wouldn’t do to get lost and waste time; he has lots to do today!

In vacanza: It is almost noon and Giovanni waits in front of the hotel. Where are those kids? He beckons his family from the building with a whistle. Shrieking and shouting in a way that cannot be compared with other European children, the gang rushes into the frontcourt. Stefano discovers the barbecue in no time, charges at it so quickly he can’t find his brakes and knocks it right over. The spit topples onto the lawn. Gianluca grabs the spit and waves it at little Stefano, who runs away bawling. While Mamma tries to calm the rascal, Giulia catches sight of a rubber dinghy. She jumps into it and bounces up and down until it bursts and goes pfffffffffffff. Madonna mia, it’s chaos!

Va Bene?! – The Film

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The organized German and the chaotic Italian – that’s one of the many scenes in the animated film by Bruno Bozzetto. The creator of Signor Rossi now produced a lovingly ironic film about German and Italian stereotypes, from over-punctuality to hotel mama. Yet as amusing as these stereotypes may be, when they even characterize the set of opinions in newspapers in both nations, it’s no longer funny. Aren’t there enough new things in Italy and Germany to discover? That is what ought to appear in reports; the lives of the shepherds in the Abruzzi, for example, or the Smorfia, a book on dream interpretation that Neapolitans use to choose their lottery numbers. To reignite curiosity, the Goethe-Institut and partners from the media, arts and politics are now starting the two-year initiative Va Bene?! – Italien auf Deutsch. La Germania in italiano.

Va Bene?! primarily addresses publicists. German and Italian writers scrutinize stereotypes, caricaturists make fun of German-Italian relations, reporters take part in an exchange and young journalists are given the opportunity to report on something new. The German and the Italian embassy in the respective partner country have taken up patronage of the initiative. “Like two good friends who have accompanied one another a long way in both sunshine and rain, Germany and Italy ask each other whether everything between them is ‘va bene and in Ordnung’,” explains Michele Valensise, the Italian ambassador in Germany. “Overcoming platitudes is like climbing a mountain. But if this task is faced with intelligence and irony, it makes it easier. Especially in Italy, where we sometimes understand how to do things better than we let on to the outside.”

-ja-