Seeking asylum

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seeking asylum (chiedo asilo) stands out as italian director marco ferreri's most family-oriented film. roberto benigni (writer, director and star of life is beautiful) is roberto, the playful, innocent preschool teacher who leads his charges on unorthodox field trips and entertains them in kooky ways. able to view life through a child's eyes, he grows exceptionally close to his pupils. he is the only one who can break through to a mute two-year-old who refuses to eat and nuttily campaigns for asylum for a runaway boy. yet he is filled with contradictions. when the mother of one of his pupils becomes pregnant with his child, he finds himself feeling ambivalent about her and their baby. though this 1979 film may be more mainstream than other ferreri films, it is by no means conventional. "as nonconformist as any of ferreri's previous credits", according to variety "but carried leisurely to its unpredictable finale by virtuoso actor benigni and a kindergarten-full of lovable brats". benigni admitted to italian journalists that the children, mostly three and four years old, really controlled the outcome of the movie. "when we started to shoot, we might as well have thrown out the screenplay because every single scene was re-invented from scratch", he said. "some of the fault was ours, as both ferreri and i have a tendency to improvise a lot, but especially thanks to the children, a wild bunch of them who refused any kind of conditioning". the result is an unfettered romp through bologna and its environs suffused with the children's natural charm - unshaped and touchingly realistic.