Presented out of competition in the Locarno Film Festival, Bobò [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film] is a veritable homage to the person who was the light of the immense Italian actor and director Pippo Delbono’s life for a number of decades. The film tells the extraordinary story of how Pippo and Bobò met in the mental hospital in Aversa, where the latter spent 46 years before the director stole him away and made him an on-stage protagonist. An artist at heart, Bobò was also an illiterate, deaf-mute man with a developmental disability, three conditions which saw him condemned to a lifetime of confinement. Like many people deemed to be “crazy” - neurodivergent people, who are differently able but socially ill-adapted - Bobò had to wait for the famous Basaglia Law, and first and foremost Pippo’s visit, before the asylum doors flew open.

Although Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia’s views undoubtedly brought about a revolution and helped to radically change the medical profession’s attitude towards their patients, it’s also undeniable that many of these patients didn’t know how to handle the sudden, boundless freedom which this afforded them. These included Bobò, who carried on roaming the asylum corridors, not knowing how to live the new life which was opening up before him, unfamiliar as he was with the codes of the society which had always rejected him. So Pippo stepped in. With no particular plan in mind, he decided to take Bobò with him at an incredibly dark and difficult time in the director’s life. In this sense, it was art which united them forever and which allowed them to save one another. Bobò tells the story of this encounter, of this explosive, artistic love-at-first-sight, of this unconventional love story.

Using archive material charting twenty years of their life together – original footage, fragments of plays and everyday moments which highlight the unbreakable bond between the two artists - the film allows Bobò’s inimitable voice to become immortal. He who was born in the shadows, segregated and forgotten for more than forty years, successfully imposes his atypical presence - thanks to the director’s sensitive nature – and dazzles beneath the spotlights, showing everyone what a true artist really is. Going far beyond words, his communication approach also allows Pippo Delbono to think about the way he himself expresses himself as an artist. With Bobò by his side, everything seems to materialise before his eyes for the very first time, helping him to find a glimmer of light when things seem to be sinking into darkness.

Telling the life story of his faithful friend, the director also treats us to a highly poignant and sincere portrait of himself - his torments and his fears. The sincerity of Delbono’s dancing, which we discover through recent footage, seems to help Bobò live on, a man who, despite no longer being with us, lives on in Delbono’s heart, in his movements, in his eyes. The music – the incontestable protagonist of the film, alongside the director’s distinctive voiceover – helps to create a story akin to a fable, a world which has no time for laws and norms created by others. Ultimately, Bobò is a film hovering between dream and reality which speaks directly to viewers’ hearts, even if they’re not yet familiar with Delbono’s work.

Bobò was produced by Fabrique Entertainment in co-production with Luce Cinecittà, Inlusion Creative Hub, Vargo and RAI Cinema.