12/12/2013 - In his second full-length feature, Joel Stangle shines a light on the darker side of Catania, where the day-to-day battles of immigrants and Sicilians intertwine

Ring of Water [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was screened out of competition at the Brussels Mediterranean Film Festival and is the second feature film by young filmmaker Joel Stangle - an American of German parentage - to be set in Sicily (three years after Profumo di Lumia). The story is a modern re-telling of a text by Polybius, a Greek historian whose writings focused on Cartagena and Rome in the lead-up to the First Punic War in 264 BC. In Stangle’s film, these two enemy cities are embodied by two boxers who must face one another in the ring.

Toscano, a boxer forced to give up his career following a car accident, and Barca, a Tunisian immigrant who has come to Sicily to make a living, both live in the Librino district, one of the darkest and most dangerous in Catania. They share the same dream: to start a family with the woman they love. But in order to achieve this, they must take part in underground boxing, a metaphor for their struggle for social emancipation. In this grey, wintry, rainy town, the two men must also contend with the realities of everyday life: organised crime for the one, and the problems linked to an illegal immigrant status for the other.

Unemployment, vulnerability, integration and breaking the cycle are just a few of the themes tackled by this curious, frank and independent work that straddles the worlds of documentary and fiction. One of the most defining features of this film is the director’s use of non-professional actors, prioritising real-life experience over professional acting ability. “The Tunisian who plays the part of the shoe salesman in the film actually escaped from an immigration detention centre in real life,” explained the director, who was in attendance at the film screening. And again, "The actor who plays Barca is actually a fisherman. It was thanks to his knowledge of engines that the boat on which he made his horrific journey managed to survive a storm and eventually reached the Italian coast.”

Although it fails to give the story a very credible start, illegal immigration - and notably the illegal status it confers - is a huge obstacle for Barca and his partner, and is the root cause of the melodrama they must live through. The swift progression of events is accompanied by the Sicilian “spartenza” - local music with an Arab influence. “In this film, music unites while politics divides.”

In spite of the narrative sloppiness, which is at times quite significant, the director’s pursuit of “realness” goes beyond a few forced metaphors, and the film dazzles through the sheer power of its images, a power which is all in the detail, the nitty gritty and the close-ups. "I think my position as an outsider helped me to gain the trust of my actors and allowed me to develop a vision that was objective, far-removed and initially fragmented, but which came together as a whole over time, allowing me to portray the fortunes or misfortunes of human beings. The film itself was conceived in this way, including the more formal elements. I invite the audience to recreate this same process of re-composition.”

The movie was produced by Scillichenti Films and presented at the Rome International Film Festival in November 2012, where it was nominated for the Prospettive Award. It was subsequently screened at the Taormina Film Fest in June 2013 and at the Denver Film Festival in November 2013. 

(Translated from Italian by Michelle Mathery)