The Love Bureau

This short and lovely documentary gives an insight in the dating bureau of Bettina. This slightly cynical lady matches Italian men with Eastern European women. In the contemporary Italian society with changing gender roles, where women become more independent and demanding, Italian men are looking for a more conservative woman. Meanwhile, the traditional Eastern European women are looking for a better life and, as they call it, ‘happiness’ in Italy.

Social interest

For Eastern European women, improvement of economic and social conditions is the motivation for finding foreign marriage partner. Why do Italian men want to marry women from other, more conservative countries? And why are they willing to put a lot of effort into women they don’t even know yet? As this documentary film also shows, Italian women protest against import brides, claiming the international marriages harms the position of Italian women. How do these international marriages harm the women from the Western country (in this case Italy)?