The narrative, unique language and familiar characters of Zerocalcare’s universe return in his This World Can’t Tear Me Down. A new character, Cesare, joins Zero, Sarah, Secco and the Armadillo, Zero’s conscience who has the unmistakeable voice in Italian of actor Valerio Mastandrea (in English, Wayne Forester).
As in Tear Along the Dotted Line, which focused on the generation born in the 1980s and their solitary, precarious, inadequate and insecure lives, This World Can’t Tear Me Down is also set in the writer’s childhood Rome, the Eastern suburbs of the city on via Tiburtina, amidst the buildings of Rebibbia and the neighbourhood of Ponte Mammolo. The story revolves around a welcome centre and a school that risks closure. But are migrants to blame? There are those who think so, those who want to welcome them, and those who see the opportunity of a lifetime vanishing if they take the “wrong” position on the issue.
The second animated series from Zerocalcare examines the difficulty in remaining oneself in midst of the contradictions of life. The title of the series, inspired by a song by a Roman singer-songwriter, is a sort of mantra, a phrase that Zerocalcare repeats, as if to convince himself, in the most challenging moments, when the risk grows of making the wrong choice and giving up one’s ideals to get out of trouble.
The narrative, unique language and familiar characters of Zerocalcare’s universe return in his This World Can’t Tear Me Down. A new character, Cesare, joins Zero, Sarah, Secco and the Armadillo, Zero’s conscience who has the unmistakeable voice in Italian of actor Valerio Mastandrea (in English, Wayne Forester).
As in Tear Along the Dotted Line, which focused on the generation born in the 1980s and their solitary, precarious, inadequate and insecure lives, This World Can’t Tear Me Down is also set in the writer’s childhood Rome, the Eastern suburbs of the city on via Tiburtina, amidst the buildings of Rebibbia and the neighbourhood of Ponte Mammolo. The story revolves around a welcome centre and a school that risks closure. But are migrants to blame? There are those who think so, those who want to welcome them, and those who see the opportunity of a lifetime vanishing if they take the “wrong” position on the issue.
The second animated series from Zerocalcare examines the difficulty in remaining oneself in midst of the contradictions of life. The title of the series, inspired by a song by a Roman singer-songwriter, is a sort of mantra, a phrase that Zerocalcare repeats, as if to convince himself, in the most challenging moments, when the risk grows of making the wrong choice and giving up one’s ideals to get out of trouble.
