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VENICE 2011 Controcampo Italiano

Scialla, to the rhythm of rap between school and family

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Despite this being his directing debut with Scialla [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, selected for the Controcampo section at the Venice Film Festival, Francesco Bruni is not exactly new to cinema. A screenwriter since 1988, he has written practically all of Paolo Virzì’s films, from La bella vita to La prima cosa bella [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, and he’s worked with Francesca Comencini, Mimmo Calopresti, Enzo Monteleone, Gianluca Tavarelli. An expert screenwriter, therefore, who at the request from Beppe Caschetto to write any comedy he pleased, chose a simple story about the relationship between father and son and ended up directing it.

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In Scialla, Bruno (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a fifty-year-old writer who has abandoned any literary fancies to write the biographies of famous people on commission. To complement this activity he gives lively private lessons to slack students. Amongst these is Luca (Filippo Scicchitano), an ignorant fifteen-year-old dressed as a rapper. Luca’s philosophy doesn’t contemplate building a future but living the moment. His language consists of Roman youth slang which includes the word that gives the film its title: “scialla”, meaning stay cool, relax. For the director, this invitation to live life moderately and calmly is a sort of poetic manifesto. And in fact, behind that heavy veil of ineptitude there is a mind that is open to the world.

In fact Bruno takes a strange liking to the boy. And soon discovers that Luca is his son. The mother, whom he met one night at the theatre and immediately lost touch with, is about to go on a six-month posting as a development worker in Africa and asks him to have Luca to stay with him and to take care of him.

Not an easy task, considering that Luca is a real disaster at school and risks being failed. On top of that he is getting into trouble with the Roman gangs. But the failing writer is being given a new opportunity: creating from scratch a bond with his son that he did not until this moment think would ever have had the possibility of existing.

Born from a careful observation of the realities of family and school, Scialla gives the two main characters ample opportunities to come out with funny lines. It is also worth mentioning the performances of Barbora Bobulova in the role of a former porn star who dictates her memories to Bruno, and Vinicio Marchioni, who makes fun of the character of Freddo which he himslef plays in the TV series Romanzo Criminale.

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(Translated from Italian)

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