BUT FOREVER IN MY MIND

A fresh young cast takes to their (left) wings in Gabriele Muccino's snappy and sympathetic feature that makes revolutionary comrades of John Hughes, Sergei Eisenstein, and Gillo Pontecorvo. In Europe, student strikes and militant actions to protest academic/government policies are not uncommon; in fact it's happened three times in memory at Silvio and Martino's high school. Now, wielding fuzzy rhetoric against ?privatization? and ?mediocrity,? an undergrad rabble-rouser rallies his classroom followers to take and hold the building by force once more. But, amidst the Che Guevara banners and propaganda-film screenings inside the occupied offices, the teen protestors find something truly radical to discuss ? how, during the fever-pitch of the uprising, Silvio dared kiss Martino's girlfriend Valentina. Behind their Marxist posturing and slogans these are really just a bunch of curious boys and girls, divided into political cliques, perhaps, but all still learning about themselves and Life, Love, and Sex 101. As grumpy cops and embarrassed parents (most of whom hurled Molotov cocktails themselves in the infamous student riots of '68) converge, the matter of Silvio, Martino, Valentina, and Claudia threatens to become Two Dates that Shook the World. (In Italian with English subtitles.)