© Yonas Tesfamichael / EritreaLive, Al Chiaro di Luna, video by Jovanotti filmed in Asmara
ASMARA, AT THE LIGHT OF LUNA, NEW VIDEOCLIP OF JOVANOTTI
Shot in Eritrea in Asmara, Al Chiaro di Luna is the new video by Jovanotti. For an Africa out of stereotypes, which young Eritreans like.
At Chiaro di Luna, Jovanotti's video just released is filmed in Asmara. Dedicated to the homonymous single is one of the most listened to songs on the web and among the most sung in the sixty seven live concerts of 2018.
This is why in recent days Asmara has been in turmoil. The arrival of Jovanotti and his crew to film Al Chiaro di Luna, has intrigued the city. The delivery, requested by the production, was silence. Nothing in the story had to leak out. But many have posted on the network selfie, images, smiles of Jovanotti on the streets of the capital. Surprised that he was not an unapproachable artist. Rather than asking to meet the people of a country that would also visit "backpacker".
That of Jovanotti in Eritrea is a journey that interrupts a long Italian absence. Before him, at seventeen, there was Renato Carosone.
We are in 1937, perhaps the same period in which Jovanotti's grandfather, another Lorenzo, goes to Eritrea. This is one of the reasons why the singer chose to shoot his new video right there. To know the places mentioned by the grandfather who was a truck driver. In short, Asmara is a bit 'the madeleine of Jovanotti. A city that contains images and childhood memories that the moment has come to give shape.
"Of Eritrea I had only heard or read some story of East Africa, of the times when it was a colony" says the singer, who then adds, " for me it is only traveling outside the circuits of tourism that you can know something really of a place " .
And to quickly understand a country, through its capital, Jovanotti in Asmara spoke with people, walked the streets, entered the shops. He sat in the bars.
And between him and the city was immediately love.
Many have given him a hand to know Asmara. So, while looking for places to set the story, other stories were born. A story in the story. A behind the scenes of the official trip, with no script or script.
Backstage Yonas Tesfamichael, a young Italian filmmaker , a bit 'Eritrean. Child arrived in Milan. Now in Asmara with his family, wife and little daughter.
His is a striking choice. How, from Eritrea, young people emigrate and he returns, many have asked themselves.
In reality it is not the only one. Even Yordanos Mehari few years ago it has returned for a while in Eritrea, to work for the UNFA, United Nations Population Fund.
They are not isolated cases. Just do not report.
">From eritrea-Italian it has been hard for years to feel such an unfair and different representation of the country that, who knows personally, loves", says Yordanos who adds, "for this I was pleased that Jovanotti chose Asmara, to shoot the video of his song. I consider it a meaningful, profound choice. A choice that reaches all those who know the beauty of the capital, the simplicity of its people ".
And for the future, what do you expect? I ask her.
"I hope" answers Yordanos "to see many more positive exchanges between our two countries, Italy and Eritrea, so linked together".
In recent years, young Eritreans have emigrated from their country for two connected reasons. The first is political instability due to the dragging of the situation, neither war nor peace with Ethiopia. The second is a profound economic crisis that has blocked the development of the country. Generating in the youngest frustrations that took away space for the future.
But since last July 9th the situation has changed. The new Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed signed a peace agreement in Asmara that cancels the previous condition of precariousness and tension. Frontiers are demilitarized. Flights between the two restored countries, as well as telephone lines and businesses.
The future is no longer leaden. Finally you can smile.
And the video clip Chiaro di Luna was an opportunity for these smiles.
A beautiful period has begun for Eritrea. The hope of rebirth.
A few years ago it would have been inappropriate to set a video clip in Eritrea for the political and social situation. In the country since 2002, after the last conflict with Ethiopia (1998-2000), the tension for the non-compliance with the Ethiopian Accords of Algiers was strong.
With the borders guarded by both armies it would have been out of place to give space to a video clip of love.
In the same days when Jovanotti was shooting in Asmara, the United Nations lifted the sanctions against Eritrea, a noose at the neck of the economy that, by a whisker, did not turn ten.
A few hours before the start the singer, perhaps to emphasize the link between Italy and Eritrea, celebrated his being in Asmara singing for the students of the Italian School, the largest abroad. The amateur video of his performance, landed on the net, was immediately a success of shares.
Images in bars, at the market, raids on motorcycles have arrived online before the official release of the video. Perhaps a promotional strategy. Certainly the sign that Asmara was happy to host Jovanotti. Now that the videoclip is officially on the net, the Eritrean places parade in it with discretion, adding history to the music.
The images of the center of Asmara, the historical dancing Mocambo, the Cinema Impero, the Fiat Tagliero service station, the Futurist emblem of the city, flow through it.
And then the signs in Italian that recall the past, the Central pharmacy, Gianni and Gina hairdressers in Harnet Avenue.
That of Jovanotti "is a brilliant video" says Ariam Tekle, a young sociologist and filmmaker, author of "Appointment to the Sailors", stories of second generations of Eritreans in Italy.
"It puts at the center two young Eritreans in love who represent the essence of Eritrea: young and in love. In love with her own history, her own people, her freedom ". "The video clip conveys a positive message", he continues, "coming out of the common, distorted imagination of the African country destroyed by poverty, hunger, oppression".
Asmara, as has been said many times, is a city that resembles many Italian provinces.
A city built with materials, designs, colors suitable for the environment, without any discord. This is why it is an original, not a badly made copy.
"The choice of video to show buildings of fascist period architecture" says Ariam "is not a nostalgic choice. Asmara is like that. Nothing is emphasized, there is no subliminal message. This is the strength of the video, a force that has moved me ".
The words of Chiaro di Luna tell simply " an extraordinary love". But if there was no affair between Asmara and Chiaro di Luna, the video would be surreal, anachronistic, melancholy. Instead it is not like that. The edge remains dry. It reaches the heart thanks to the song but also to the places where it is set.
Lorenzo, writes his staff, felt that Asmara was the right place to tell Chiaro di Luna. "For this song there was no alternative that would convince me the same way," says Jovanotti.
In the story Lorenzo plays a musician who works during the day and in the evening he plays in the bar of Cinema Roma.
A simple life that meets that of a normal couple of young Eritreans.
He is the mechanic who repairs his motorcycle. A boy in love who hangs a " calendar " on the shop wall where " every month a future photo" talks about his girlfriend.
While the girl who returns love, big and overwhelming, is a hairdresser in the historic store in the city center.
Garbo and passion, in a suspended time. Not that of the city, but that of love, which " does not know where the hours are going".
The video closes with the two young people who, once again, in the romantic darkness of asmarine evenings, find themselves listening to their friend's music.
Leaving the cinema, the boys hug each other strongly, leaving a separation to presage. However, they will bring " the most mystical and earthly experience " to the heart , embracing " Al Chiaro di Luna".
Al Chiaro di Luna, a love song, even if thanks to it, Jovanotti tried to " tell an Africa without stereotypes".
" The news" says the singer "report that many young people arriving in Italy through the Mediterranean are Eritreans". But "the kids do not run away if they find job opportunities, they are proud of staying there or returning" to Eritrea. "Asmara", headds "is a beautiful place that touched my heart.
Certainly the video of Jovanotti, addressing the boys and showing a simple image of Eritrea, of his capital Asmara, makes an operation against what he calls "generalizations that always hurt". And that, unfortunately, they are hard to die.
That the video like young people, but not only, is beyond doubt.
What should be added is that Chiaro di Luna is not a Countess. But if one wants to deny that even everyday life exists in Asmara, Jovanotti's videoclip represents it, without becoming a manifesto.
Those that Africa can only be understood by means of missionary or neo-colonial lenses should be given a reason. Africa, when it shows itself, speaks for itself. Also at the Chiaro di Luna.
Sweet Marilena
@EritreaLive
Jovanotti - Chiaro Di Luna
|  | Jovanotti - Chiaro Di Luna‘Chiaro Di Luna’, la canzone d’amore definitiva, è anche qui: https://umi.lnk.to/OH_VITA Regia: YouNuts! (Antoni... |
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Chiaro di Luna Lyrics
[Intro]
Hey hey hey hey hey
[Strofa 1]
Proverò a pensarti mentre mi sorridi
La capacità che hai di rasserenare
Mi hai insegnato cose che non ho imparato
Per il gusto di poterle reimparare
Ogni giorno mentre guardo te che vivi
E mi meraviglio di come sai stare
Vera dentro un tempo tutto artificiale
Nuda tra le maschere di carnevale
Luce dei miei occhi sangue nelle arterie
Selezionatrice delle cose serie
Non c'è niente al mondo che mi deconcentri
Non c'è cosa bella dove tu non centri
Dicono finiscila con questa storia
Di essere romantico fino alla noia
Certo hanno ragione gente intelligente
Ma di aver ragione non mi frega niente
Voglio avere torto mentre tu mi baci
Respirare l'aria delle tue narici
Come quella volta che abbiamo scoperto
Che davanti a noi c'era uno spazio aperto
Che insieme si può andare lontanissimo
Guardami negli occhi come fossimo
Complici di un piano rivoluzionario
Un amore straordinario
[Ritornello]
E non esiste paesaggio più bello della tua schiena
Quella strada che porta fino alla bocca tua
Non esiste esperienza più mistica e più terrena
Di ballare abbracciato con te al chiaro di luna
[Strofa 2]
Emozioni forti come il primo giorno
Che fanno sparire le cose che ho intorno
Cercherò il tuo sguardo nei posti affollati
La tua libertà oltre i fili spinati
Non potrai capire mai cosa scateni
Quando mi apri la finestra dei tuoi seni
Quel comandamento scritto sui cuscini
Gli innamorati restan sempre ragazzini
Io non lo so dove vanno a finire le ore
Quando ci scorrono addosso e se ne vanno via
Il tempo lava ferite che non può guarire
L'amore è senza rete e senza anestesia
C'è un calendario sul muro della mia officina
Per ogni mese una foto futura di te
Che sei ogni giorno più erotica o mia regina
Non c'è un secondo da perdere
[Ritornello]
Impazzisco baciando la pelle della tua schiena
Quella strada che porta fino alla bocca tua
Non esiste esperienza più mistica e più terrena
Di ballare abbracciato con te al chiaro di luna
[Outro]
Abbracciato con te
Abbracciato con te
Abbracciato con te
Con te al chiaro di luna
Hey hey hey hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
Hey hey hey hey hey
Abbracciato con te
