«You are a delicate soul». The prison guard Gaetano Gargiulo is about to leave the maximum security prison of Mortana, in Sardinia, a dilapidated nineteenth-century fortress that the ministry has decided to dismiss. In free time, celebrate with colleagues sitting around the fire, in the cold. He remembers when a boy was taken by his father to hunt and hit a turtle dove that was injured on the lawn. Dad wanted to take her down. He took her home to cure her. Shortly after Gargiulo and his men are summoned by the director. The communication is that the prison still has to live for some time due to a bureaucratic impasse. Days, perhaps weeks, of coexistence are expected between twelve sad inmates hanging from the lips of Don Carmine Lagioia (Silvio Orlando) and a handful of agents led by Gargiulo, the eldest (Toni Servillo).
The group is heterogeneous. It includes “the infamous, disgusting” guilty of a hateful crime against minor children, the gallop of Don Carmine, the helpful black and the incarnate Slav, a young snatcher rejected by his parents. Italians and foreigners, irreducible and poor souls crushed by a sense of guilt. “You and I have nothing in common. I’ve never hurt anyone, ”says the upright Gargiulo to boss Lagioia in an extreme defense. Actually the two are poles with opposite voltages, but not that different. When the revolt for precooked food is threatened, Don Carmine asks to reopen the kitchens: he will be the cook for everyone.
Gargiulo realizes that the old delinquent is a natural leader and allies himself with him. But above all he realizes that he has frozen his existence on the rules, on obedience to orders rather than on the freedom to choose, and he feels obliged to make up for lost time. Agree to get back in the game despite the perplexed faces of colleagues who would prefer to act by force. Relationships change, a virtuous circle of humanity and integration is born. Looking at you, don Carmine spignatta, helps Gargiulo with the frail boy who threatens suicide, smokes a cigarette outdoors, mentions the industriousness of the ants and, in a stormy night and blackout, manages to organize a joint dinner between prison officers and inmates, “something that had never been seen before”.
They come to mind The desert of the Tartars by Dino Buzzati, the song Don Raffaè by Fabrizio De André, Waiting for Godot by Beckett, the classic westerns, where an emergency situation brings out the defects and virtues of a community. “The transfer order can also arrive tomorrow,” repeats Gaetano but inside he has no certainties. Leonardo Di Costanzo moves between physics and metaphysics, between constrained spaces and the need for truth. Hers is a claustrophobic tale, with still air, suspended time and hearts carved into the rock, with a soundtrack of doors slamming, gates closing, keys entering rusted locks, of heavy footsteps in the corridors and peepholes open on the dim lights of the cells. The film was shot in the former San Sebastiano prison in Sassari. Di Costanzo returns the value of a nightmare – reflection on the human condition also rethinking the constricting experience of the lockdown.
Field and reverse: a game of glances, tired walks, tired gestures. The duel between the protagonists is exciting. On the thread of wool prevails, but by a hair, Silvio Orlando, supervised and very deep boss who observes: “Hard to be in prison, huh.” Gargiulo’s response: «You are in prison, Lagioia, not me». An investigation beyond the walls, the bars, the weaknesses of those who have surrendered and the tenacity of those who do not want to surrender.
ARIAFERMA by Leonardo Di Costanzo
(Italy, 2021, duration 117 ‘)
with Toni Servillo, Silvio Orlando, Fabrizio Ferracane, Salvatore Striano, Roberto Di Francesco, Pietro Giuliano, Nicola Sechi
Rating: *** ++ out of 5
In the halls
16 October 2021 | 07:51
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