Caregivers

'Caregivers' presents the Ukrainian women who have chosen voluntary exile to work as caregivers for the elderly in Italy, where they earn enough to provide financial support to their families back home in Ukraine. Living on the margins, they are solitary and elusive figures whose roles are defined but whose individual identities are not being recognized by the host country. Their way of life is rooted in silence and service, and their existence appears formless to us because they adapt themselves to the needs of the people they care for. Castro and Ólafsson combine music, words and film to explore distinctions and similarities in their lives. Hands and feet are developed as visual motifs, eloquently demonstrating the connections and divisions between the two communities living side-by-side. Superimposed on this visual sequence, Davide Beretta’s investigative article is performed in a contemporary operatic styles. Through visually interrupting the piece, this stylised rendering of the text reveals the meaning of the words anew. While the text provides figures and facts, and the images present fragments of the story of lives filled with humanity, it is the music that underscores the distance between these two different forms of viewing reality and imparts a sense of surreal disorientation to the situation.