Open Roads. Dispatch 6.

Director/co-writer Laura Muscardin was represented in Open Roads a few years back with Days, her thoughtful take on a pair of gay lovers, one of whom seemed to have courted the AIDS virus. This was a troubling movie, dark and cool, though with enough hints of repressed anger and love to allow the humanity of all the characters to - if not shine through, at least flicker occasionally.

Muscardin's new film, Billo il grand dakhaar (or just Billo for us Americans [site]) is not nearly as dark, nor, I think, does it work quite as well - although it is definitely worth a watch. (It plays twice today, Monday.) The movie combines, not always handily, a story of an African immigrant, Billo, and his experience in today's big-city Italy with a family saga that involves a young woman who harbors perhaps deeper psychological problems than the viewer understands or the moviemaker wants to admit (Muscardin does, but almost as a withholding afterthought). The girl's family includes a seemingly distant dad, a too-effusive mom and a brother who is gay. Trailing along are the brother's lover and friends. Billo's life in Senegal, which keeps intruding on his new life in Italy, involves a young love left behind, an arranged marriage, and a mother to whom our hero is extremely close - understandably, given his history, but almost to the point of subservience.

This clash of cultures is extremely interesting, even if it is portrayed a bit heavy-handedly and with one coincidence (as big as it is unbelievable) involving a customer of the upholstery shop where our hero finds work. Muscardin films in a near-documentary style and on a budget that looks to be pretty tight. But all her actors do a good job, particularly Thierno Thiam, who plays Billo. This young man, easy on both the eyes and the ears, gives almost as fine a performance as does Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe in James' Journey to Jerusalem - another and even better film about an African working in a foreign land. If you have not seen this amazing movie, do so immediately. It is available in DVD, where I hope Billo will arrive, too, since it has not yet been picked up for US distribution.

What finally makes this movie special is the unusual solution to the culture-clash problem arrived at by all concerned parties on the Italian front. (We never learn the reactions of those remaining behind in Senegal.) "Tolerance" plays a large part in this, and while, as a gay man, I have long had mixed feelings about this term (You're going to "tolerate" me. Really? How wonderful!), the manner in which it is used and understood here registers in a stronger, healthier fashion. I hope I've said enough (but not too much) to pique your interest in Billo, a movie that is certainly unusual - and timely - enough to warrant your attention.

Among the darker, minimal-action entries in this year's Open Roads is writer/director Giovanni Davide Maderna's Schopenhauer (playing Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday night). Barely an hour long, the movie moves slowly but never uninterestingly. When little happens (see In Memory of Me for another example) the alert viewer must pay even closer attention to what is going on. Schopenhauer rewards this attention bountifully.

Two students arrive for a pre-arranged visit with a famous writer/philosopher who is also famously reclusive. He keeps them waiting. And waiting. As the "assistants" of Mr Famous fill in the time with ping pong, meals, minimal conversation and something more, the student suppliants start to unhinge. It's all in the details here, and Maderna has given exactly the right amount of them - and length to his film - so that we watch, learn, puzzle over and finally creep ourselves out.

I have never read Schopenhauer (he is definitely on my "Once I Retire" list, along with Proust), so I cannot say if or how this movie connects to his philosophy. But it did make me think and feel strongly about how important it is to give our children a durable enough sense of themselves and their worth that they might better withstand what happens in this short, sad, strange and intriguing film.

Posted by dwhudson at June 11, 2007 2:36 PM