«Touching and heartwarming.»
arttv.ch

«Nicola Bellucci's «Quir – A Palermo Love Story» is respectful, but also colorful and quirky. At the end of the film we're all a bit in love and almost convinced having met these wonderful people - and that's a great joy.»
Brigitte Häring, SRF Kultur

«Everything comes across as casual, serene, mostly cheerful in this extraordinary documentary. (…) QUIR is a cheerful, affectionate film and a harmonious feast for the ears, thanks to the swinging, jazzy, volatile score by Roberto Lobbe Procaccini and Valerio Vigliar and many musical quotations. The fact that death, and perhaps also the devil, are always present is acknowledged by the protagonists with wit and chutzpah and great, infectious solidarity.»
Michael Sennhauser, Sennhausers Filmblog

««Where reason fails, madness is able to triumph. The madness of a heart in love.» This is a quote from the film gem QUIR by Nicola Bellucci (director), Frank Matter (producer) and Pierre Mennel (cinematography). This is culture with esprit.»
Michael Lang, Kino-Tipp

«In his documentary «Quir», director Nicola Bellucci tells a deeply touching story – lively, sensitive and full of warmth. With great sincerity, he celebrates love, the strength to endure and the courage to be oneself. (…) Nicola Bellucci has created a film that shines – because it shows life in all its diversity and depth.»
Maxime Maynard, cineman.ch

«(A) touching documentary, between joie de vivre and activism, love and grief. (...) QUIR is tongue-in-cheek reminiscent of the carnivalesque movies by Pedro Almodóvar or Federico Fellini - except that here it's real people who talk about their lives.»
Marcy Goldberg, WOZ

««Quir» deals with serious topics and is surprisingly lighthearted all the same. Despite difficulties and fears, insecurities and discrimination, the people who stop by Massimo and Gino's store have retained their wit and strength. They tackle the gender issue with joy. Director Nicola Bellucci succeeds in simply being there with his camera and showing the protagonists' reality. The scenes fit together organically, nothing seems contrived or deliberate. Although the camera always does something to the filmed in such constellations, they remain truthful and authentic in «Quir».»
Raphael Amstutz, SDA

«At a time when queer rights are once again coming under pressure, QUIR is creating a space. A space to celebrate. A space to remember. For all who love. And for all who want to understand what this ultimately means.»
Noemie Keller, Radio X

«A refreshing cinematic experience, where tragic and lightness meets. We experience how important the community and the mutual exchange within the community is to continue the fight for recognition and freedom in conservative Italy and against the current political background.»
Jacqueline Maurer, Programmzeitung Basel

«With courage and bucketloads of affection, Nicola Bellucci’s new feature portrays characters on the edge who are struggling to survive in a world which would rather forget them (…) Quir is a fortifying film, a tribute both distressing and light-hearted to those who have decided to free themselves from the oppressive ways of a society which tries to crush any form of rebellion in any way it can. Quir is a proud revindication of life lived outside of norms (…) an overwhelming journey into the heart of a community which has decided to come out into the open to shout about its right to exist. In his latest film, Bellucci seems to urge us to observe the world through the eyes of his queens, a colourful world built upon solidarity, acceptance, tolerance and a cathartic helping of humour. Their bodies become vessels and archives of a past full of pain and violence, but also light-heartedness and freedom; of battles to assert their right to be unashamedly diverse in a world which would have us all docile and obedient.»
Muriel del Don, cineuropa.org

«Director Nicola Bellucci captures all the unprejudiced love and struggle for civil rights of a neighborhood queer store. The Quir becomes an exciting microcosm full of colorful, heartwarming and conscience-awakening characters.»
Martina Volpato, Taxidrivers.it

«Like in the depicted city, an atmosphere of death prevails through the film Quir, but it is a film about death that celebrates life; it is a film bursting with life that does not forget death and succeeds in the difficult task of speaking secularly of rebirth, if not of actual resurrection… Nicola Bellucci sees his film as a gesture of love, finding an echo in the words that actor Massimo Verdastro recites at Massimo and Gino’s political wedding. They are verses by Nino Gennaro, a poet from Corleone who died of AIDS in 1995 and who wrote dazzling aphorisms such as «either you are happy or you are complicit,» to be found in his «jewel-active booklets» that he personally distributed to friends. It goes like this, «to love only / always / without ever hating each other.» And also, «where reason cannot / may the madness of a heart in love be able to.» With equal simplicity Quir speaks of struggle and beauty, of eccentricity and revolution: of the life, of love.»
Andrea Inzerillo, Ilmanifesto.it

«The film is a testimony to a relationship that, though thwarted, manages to convey love and acceptance toward anyone who wants to be themselves while respecting the freedom of others.»
Carmela Ieni, viviroma.it

«The viewer finds himself immersed in the atmosphere of the leather store that gives the film its title, a kind of confessional that over the years has become an important meeting point of the local LGBTQI+ scene. This is where friends like Ernesto, Vivian, and Charly meet, all people who are not described in the film but brought out through the gestures of their daily lives, which are in fact political acts of fighting for their rights in a Sicily – and in an Italy – still dominated by a patriarchal culture. Bellucci lets us into their homes and lets us breathe in their love, difficulties, moments of mourning and existential reflections on the masculine and the feminine. There are also testimonies from young trans and gay men, giving the measure of how much the condition of this community has changed in the last forty years, but also how certain aspects remain unchanged.»
Cristiana Allievi, Corriere della Sera

«Quir by Nicola Bellucci is a portrait of some characters of Palermo’s LGBTQI+ community and, through them, of an increasingly multiform and multiethnic city. A world as colorful and shiny as the bags in the protagonists‘ leather store, happy existences proud of their own declination of sexuality, but behind them also a great and historical militancy made of many demonstrations and struggles for civil rights. (…) Quir embraces the passage of time, the passage between generations. It is a film about the human beauty of its characters, studded with humorous moments that keep the work in a light tone.»
Giampiero Raganelli, Quinlan

«Massimo Milani and Gino Campanella’s love has lasted for decades. They helped shape the beginnings of the gay movement in Italy and run one of the country’s most important scene locations in Palermo, right in the heart of conservative Sicily. Anyone who enters their store is looked after – and above all, can’t avoid their lively discussions. Because the scene is on fire!Filmmaker Nicola Bellucci has created a cinematic monument to the couple, their surroundings, and their store, which sparkles with charm and wisdom.»
Dennis Vetter, 41th Kasseler Dokfest

«Quir celebrates a vibrant Palermo in constant change, a symbol of a community that looks to the future with hope despite all the difficulties. (…) In a world that often demands conformity, Quir reminds us that being oneself, without a mask, without compromise and above all without fear, means freedom.»
Eleonora Zanardi, taxidrivers.it

 

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