Theatre of Life

Type: Documentary

Director: Peter Swatek

Main actor: Massimo Bottura

Distribution year: 2016

Language: Italian and English

The documentary tells the story of the Refettorio Ambrosiano project, a popular canteen set up in an abandoned theater on the outskirts of Milan. The project was created in the wake of Expo 2015, with the goal of reusing food waste, transforming it into quality meals and combating food waste, creating a social and cultural opportunity.

The initiative is the brainchild of Italian chef Massimo Bottura, joined by about sixty international chefs, including Alain Ducasse, Mario Batali and René Redzepi, who put their expertise at the service of a soup kitchen designed to offer quality food to refugees, homeless people and families in need.

Every year, in fact, more than 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally, while, according to the FAO, about 2.8 billion people are undernourished or malnourished (data 2022). In this context, the extraordinary experiment of the Refettorio Ambrosiano, a canteen that can be described as almost gourmet because of the care with which the dishes are prepared, shows howhaute cuisine can become a concrete tool for social inclusion.

The film succeeds in deeply touching the viewer through the stories of the people taken in by the Refectory: communities of disabled people, mothers with young children from Africa, South America or Eastern Europe, as well as Italian citizens who have lost their jobs and can no longer meet their daily expenses.

This project combined the energy of some of the most important international chefs in a unique work capable of restoring dignity and humanity to those living on the margins of society, transforming the Refectory into a true “theater of life.” Once again, food proves to be a powerful element in connecting people.

The Refettorio Ambrosiano is an initiative of social inclusion and cultural responsibility: it is not charity, but culture. Besides being emotional and touching, the documentary shows a different Milan and addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time, food waste.