04/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: Edoardo Morabito follows the adventures of an unusual dreamer, choked by a torrent of contradictions and by a megalomania that turns him into a caricature of himself

For his second feature film presented in the Special Events section of the Giornate degli Autori of the 80th Venice Film Festival, The Outpost [+see also:
trailer
interview: Edoardo Morabito
film profile], Edoardo Morabito has decided to follow the vicissitudes of Christopher Clark, a Scottish eco-warrior who has dedicated his life to saving the Amazonian forest. From inside the “green lung of the world,” Chris keeps coming up with what could be seen as crazy plans to alert the public opinion to the impending ecological disaster. His goal is to push the Brazilian government to establish nature reserves that could salvage (unfortunately only partially) the forest.

What Morabito shows us is the last desperate attempt by Clark to get his voice heard. The idea bubbling in his head is to organise no less than a Pink Floyd concert in the heart of the Amazonian forest to convince the Brazilian government to act. What emerges from the beginning of the film is the extraordinary stubbornness of the protagonist, his ability to cling to scraps of reality that he weaves together to transform them into certainties. Although what he says seems more and more “strange:” does he really know David Gilmour? How will he, concretely, collect sufficient funds to set up such a project? It’s only when the comments of the director, expressed with insistence in voice-over, become more present that reality, as Clark presents it, falters.

Like us, the director discovers the complex personality of his protagonist during the journey they undertake together to his outpost, a community he has established in the heart of the Amazonian forest. Clark has created this reserve to allow the indigenous peoples that live in the forest, who are often involved in illicit but lucrative trades that have little to do with the protagonist’s ecological concerns, to live “in a dignified manner” (to use his words). According to Clark’s reasoning, this should prompt them not to destroy their land. What the protagonist dreams of, a socially balanced society in which man lives in harmony with nature, reveals itself, with the passing of time, to be just a pipe dream. With the arrival of affluence, jealousies arise and the craving for wealth takes over from the harmony preconceived by its founder. Despite the fact that defeat is by now evident, the film's protagonist does not lose hope, on the contrary, and embarks on the adventure of his life: the organisation of a mega-concert equal in amplitude to what is at stake, namely the destruction of the “green lung of the world.”

But who really is Chris Clark? A madman or a prophet? These are the first questions that the director asks himself, clearly expressing his doubts about his protagonist’s true intentions. En route to Clark's personal outpost, amongst “inoffensive” caimans (according to the protagonist’s experience) and all kinds of dangers, we clearly hear the director wondering whether it was judicious to put his life in the hands of a decidedly old-fashioned hero who is apparently unaware of his own limits. What is certain is that only by following him can the filmmaker find out who he really is, who is hiding behind the spotless saviour.

What makes The Outpost special are precisely the off-screen comments of the director, at times truly direct, almost violent, remarks that don’t leave any doubt as to Clark’s nature. Who has used who? Morabito intent on appropriating the dream of his protagonist, or Clark, who sneakily uses the film’s budget to concretise his project? From a portrait of an out-of-the-ordinary character, the film turns into a reflection on the concept of salvation, on everyone's need to escape from their frightening reality.

The Outpost was produced by Dugong Films with Rai Cinema. Intramovies is handling international sales.

(Translated from Italian)

Photogallery 04/09/2023: Venice 2023 - The Outpost

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Edoardo Morabito, Irma Vecchio, Fernando Meirelles, Micaela Fusco, Marco Valerio Fusco, Giancarlo Cammerini
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