The schedule of the second day of this 5th European Youth Meeting is less rich than that of the first day, but this was for an obvious reasons, as students and their professors have to work hard on the documents that will be presented tomorrow in the Auditorium. Still, it offers some good material to start some reflection from. Indeed, one of the side events scheduled by the Legislative Assembley of Emilia Romagna was the Film Festival "Oltre il Muro" (Beyond the Wall), in a cooperation with the local Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, besides the theatre show of tonight - MonBijou - at Testoni Theatre performed by the T.I.R. company.

While the delegations were busy working their ideas out in the buildings of the Regional Council, other students coming from various schools of Bologna could somehow be part of the event by attending the screenings of the four scheduled movies at Cinema Europa.

It's a free world (2007), by the english director Ken Loach, opened yesterday the Film Festival, followed by Sonnenallee (Ger, 1999) by Leander Haussmann - the movie YouthPress Italia decided to follow with the students; Nikolaikirche (Ger, 1995) by Frank Beyer and the well-known Good-Bye Lenin (Ger, 2003) by the director Wolfgang Becker are the last movies on show; a bigger audience is foreseen at the latter screening, as the manager of the Cinema Europa in Via Pietralata revealed us today, only because it's the most famous movie of the serie.

Nevertheless, today's film Sonnenallee surprised the circa 20 students who came at the 9,30 am screening. Their initial scepticism and absent-mindness - tipical of those student who see such events more as an occasion to skip class than a formative experience - turned into open satisfaction and amused approval at the end of the screening. "It won us over by the use of irony and by the amazing soundtrack. We thought was a boring movie, since the school brought us here, but I have to admit it was very good" said one of the 18 years old students to YouthPress Italia; "Its force was that of telling the story of those times as it was lived by young people like us: it was really catching" added another student of the technical high-school Aldini.

The movie, indeed, was the story of a rebellious group of friends in the East Berlin in the 70s, grown up listening to the banned rock music and experiencing the first loves and illicit experiences (like drugs) of their lives. The contradictions of a troubled era are the backstage for their naive adventures, told with a dinamic and rhytmic style, perfect for keeping up the attention of a young audience. The clash between the world of Social Realism of GDR and the so-far lifestyle of the Western side of the city, the fakeness of the wannabe reality set up by the Comunist regime, everyday problems in Eastern Germany: the movie deals with all these issues lightly, in a bright and serene way, with a sympathetic, critical humour - somehow ironic, somehow nostalgic.

Ten years after this film, twenty years after the 9th of November 1989, the young audience was still caught up by these themes. We asked why to Prof.ssa Bolletta, one of the teachers of the Liceo Fermi who took her pupils to the screenings.

"Young people are experiencing today a critical situation just like that the previous generation experienced 30 years ago. I mean, the surface, the historical context is different of course, but the substantial discomfort towards the contemporaneity is more or less the same. That's why nowadays the young generations have still something to fight for". The movie, in Mrs. Bolletta's opinion, had so much grip on the students because it spoke about the same, crossborder ideals of all time: hopes for the future, love, frienship, travel as a way to discover (or re-discover) the self. "Times are changed but they still have the same feelings of the GDR youngs at that time. Maybe now the problem is that the whole world is at hand, while at that time people could dream only about seeing just half of it, if lucky, or just a tiny bit. That perspective was more claustrophobic".

Mrs. Bollini, being asked about the future perspectives for this"work-in-progress" Europe, left us with a reflection: "There's still so much to do, especially for the eastern part of the EU, which I think is less integrated with the Western part, the ruling side of Europe. Unfortunately, in Italy we're seldom aware of these problems of integration as we tend to forget about those countries, focussing more on other issues like immigration from Africa".

Mrs. Bollini now walks away with her bunch of curious and over-excited students. We guess they'll have a lot to discuss about when they'll get back to their class.