Babbo

My father, Elio, is an Italian septuagenarian who has lived in Quebec for some fifty years. He’s decided to close his restaurant, after devoting 37 years of his life to the business. As he turns over a new leaf, I see an opportunity to get closer to him. I make a plan to set out on an initiatory journey together, a trip that will take us through his immigration story. In search of a common identity, we’ll travel from Quebec to Monte Cerignone, a tiny village in northern Italy, where we’ll search for traces of his former life. While he is eager to make peace with a difficult past, I hope to better understand where I come from. Our travels will lead us, as immigrants, to question the concept of belonging to a country, a culture, and an identity.