The film F.I.A.T. revisits the original acronym of the Turin-based car company “Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino” as “Fabbrica Industriale Alimentare Torino”. It attempts to unfold the beauty of a place that was not only the industrial city of the twentieth century, but also a true food city, still clinging to its traditions today. The diptych format aims to establish the links between the industrial and food production mechanisms.
The first part of the film explores parallels that can be drawn between the logistical and production mechanisms of both the FIAT Lingotto (the industrial sector) and the former MOI markets (the food sector); two archaeologies that have borne witness to seventy years of existence, each in their own way. It seeks to recreate an imaginary archive. The next part explicitly move away from the FIAT Lingotto to focus on food distribution issues. The wholesale mechanics are depicted in today’s CAAT terminal market (Centro Agro Alimentare Torino), which opened in 2002 in Grugliasco, a town on Turin’s outskirts. A voice-over narration describes how things used to be in the former MOI markets. These sequences aime to show the mechanisms which continue to feed forty markets to this day.
Director’s cut version. Filmed at Archizoom, Switzerland and Centro Agro Alimentare Torino, Italy.
Dorian Fabbro