Rust and Bone VS Mediterranea

On Friday 16^th of October, I went with my film and media class to watch a screening of Mediterranea at the BFI Film Festival in Brixton. This took place in a small arthouse cinema called ‘The Ritzy’ and it was followed by a short question and answer with the director, Jonas Carpignano who gave some useful information about the production of the film and on the characters which I found very intriguing. This was Carpignano’s first feature film but he has previously directed five short films: La Casa d’Argento Bava (2006), Resurrection Man (2010), Bayou Black (2011), A Chiana (2012) and A Ciambra (2014). A common similarity that I noticed between most of these films and Mediterranea is that they show the journey of the protagonist(s) and at times, the narrative is based upon the director’s historical and cultural background.  Due to this being his first feature and the actors being unknown, the director explained that it was difficult to fund the film and that he had to go to about five different production companies. Jonas Carpignano also wrote Mediterranea and it was produced in 2015 with End Cue and it was first released on September, 2^nd in France. The music was by Dan Romer, the director of photography was Wyatt Garfield, the editing was by Sanabel Cherqaoui, Affonso Gonçalves and Nico Leunen and the production design was by Marco Ascanio Viarigi.

After watching the film ‘Rust and Bone’ in class, we were asked to do a comparison between that and Mediterranea due to them both being in world cinema, and sharing similar themes including poverty, power and conflict, therefore them being great for our exam. Rust and Bone was directed by Jacques Audiard, written by Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain and the story was by Craig Davidson. It was produced by Jacques Audiard, Martine Cassinelli and Pascal Caucheteux with Canal+ and Why Not Productions in 2012.  Jacques Audiard has gone on to direct Dheepan in 2015 which is about a fighter who flees to France, to which he ends up working as a caretaker. Regarding Rust and Bone, the music was by Alexandre Desplat, the DP was Stephane Fontaine and the editor was Juliette Welfling.

Starring: Koudous Seihon (Ayiva), Alassane Sy (Abas), Pio Amato (Pio), Annalisa Pagano (Cristina Riso), Sinka Bourehima (Ahmed) and Davide Schipilliti (Rocco), Mediterranea is a social realism, documentary drama which looks at the dangerous life of refugees and it follows the journey of Ayiva and Abas as they make their way from Africa to Italy in the search for a better life. Rust and Bone is a social realism, drama, romance which also follows the journeys of the two main protagonists: Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) and Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts). As well as exploring the developing relationship between the two of them, the film looks at Stephanie’s journey of accepting and dealing with her disability and Alain’s journey of supporting himself, his family and Stephanie as well as having to deal with poverty.

So in terms of the theme of poverty, Mediterranea and Rust and Bone show this very well. In Mediterranea, the protagonists are running away from poverty but clearly cannot escape it and throughout the film, they are constantly exploited in terms of their money. They have to undergo hard labour jobs just for a small amount of money and this really highlights their desperation and need which was tragic but realistic. In Rust and Bone, Ali is the character living in poverty and the audience are immediately made aware of this from the opening sequences. His son, Sam complains that he is hungry on the train and Ali immediately rummages through the carriages, picking up anything eatable he can find and the two of them eat it very quickly with their hands. The fact they are eating in this manner firstly shows how desperate they were for food and they clearly have not eaten in a long time and it also symbolises animalistic traits. This is important because animals are often under the control of someone and this could potentially show that they are under the control of the government, the higher class rulers who tax them and provide little support for their state of pure desperation or it could show that society views them as animals, as worthless and therefore show little respect towards them. Following the train sequence, we see Ali rob from a store and then he is sitting on a beach with Sam, playing with McDonald’s boxes. There is a huge juxtaposition here because Ali and Sam are wearing old, dirty clothes which clearly indicate their lack of wealth as they sit on a beautiful white sand beach and they do not seem to fit in at all. Little do the middle/upper people on the beach know that not far away, there are people living in huge amounts of poverty who are faced with one of the biggest challenges of survival.

It could be said that both films show a representation of masculinity, especially in Rust and Bone. Ali demonstrates his power and strength when fighting with men who quite frankly, are a lot bigger than him, just to earn small amounts of money, showing that in order to survive in the real world, you need to be strong and masculine. He is also illustrated to have many sexual relationships with women and this is another stereotype of having ‘masculinity’ and he seems to be very proud of this trait and shows it off to Stephanie. He seems to gain his power over women through sex which represents men to be powerful and manipulative and women to be weak and easily influenced.

The theme of conflict is also conveyed through this representation because there are times when the characters masculinity is challenged. This is shown through their relationships with their children. When travelling away from Africa, Ayiva has no choice but to leave his seven year old daughter behind and when he has a skype call with her and he sees her receive and love the present he sent her, he cannot help but cry. However, when he does cry he covers the camera with his finger, initially showing that he does not want to upset his daughter but deeper down, it could show that he is ashamed to be showing these emotions because they are not ‘masculine’ and he feels he needs to be a ‘man’ about the whole situation. This illustrates the ‘new man’ representation because he is showing his more sensitive, caring side.

The developing relationship between Ali and Sam is shown as the narrative develops and their relationship reaches its climax during the lake scene in which Sam becomes trapped underneath the ice. Ali uses all his strength possible to smash through the ice, his knuckles are bleeding and he is clearly running out of energy but this does not stop him and he continues to crush his bare hands against the freezing ice until he is able to retrieve Sam from underneath it. This scene was so emotionally intense because it truly showed how much Ali cares for Sam and he was willing to put himself through so much pain to save his life and although this strength is ‘masculine’, it is the hospital scene that really challenges this trait. Ali is on the phone to Stephanie, he is crying telling her please not to hang up, to stay with him and this brings out his sensitive, emotional side and shows that he is not fully independent, he needs the support and love of Stephanie and is not afraid to admit this to her.

The theme of conflict is further expressed through the character of Stephanie. She experiences inner conflict because after her terrible accident that left her stranded in a wheelchair, she feels trapped within her own body. She clearly feels useless, as if she may as well give up and this is indicated by scenes such as when she wants to give away all of her clothes- she is demonstrating defeat. I felt the restriction of being in a wheelchair was portrayed so well in Rust and Bone, not that I have experienced it but I know what it is like to not be able to move and the film clearly demonstrated the lack of strength you have and the worthlessness and emotional pain and impatience that Stephanie experiences was incredibly heart-breaking and moving. The fact that she is trapped inside the wheelchair links to the whales at the beginning of the film. The whales are shown to be in captivity, they cannot move very far, they have no freedom and they are being used and manipulated for the entertainment of humans, so they are being exploited for their money and entertainment. This symbolises Stephanie because suddenly, she experiences what it is like to be the whales, in which her job was to train them and she understands their captivity. The fact that she earned money by training them is extremely important because after her accident, she has to be trained herself, needing help to go about her daily life so there is a completely mirrored reflection of the whales and Stephanie.

The cinematography within Mediterranea also added to the realism of the film because it was all filmed using handheld camera. I believe the director did this to represent how the lives of the migrants in this film are not constructed or carefully placed into a scripted narrative but instead, they are gritty and real. The camera was also quite shaky at times which symbolises how the characters journeys and experiences were unstable and they were forced to go through terrifying and emotional events which ‘shook them up’ meaning they have not been able to get their lives under control. Regarding the cinematography, there were some absolutely beautiful shots throughout Mediterranea with the strong inclusion of bokeh behind the night-life scenes which I found truly stunning and I believe Carpignano included this to represent how although the characters are constantly surrounded by harshness and negativity, they can still look to find the good and beauty in their situations. There was a recurring extreme close up shot that was used of Ayiva and Abas each time they reached a new location and this was an effective way of documenting their journey because the audience were able to see their reactions which were often a look of fear and helplessness because they were completely unsure of what to expect.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed Mediterranea because at times, the narrative was very emotionally moving and I was able to gain connections with a lot of the characters. The messages touched upon were clearly close to the director and a lot of passion and heart-felt emotion went into making Mediterranea which was definitely reflected throughout. Although I found the ending slightly confusing due to the ambiguity and enigma codes that it left the audience with, it was still very effective at expressing the main theme of ‘personal journeys’. The cinematography was incredible, the performances were outstanding and I am going to rate this film 7.5/10. It was not my favourite film from the collection I have watched at the BFI Film Festival (Ayanda was my favourite) but it was definitely impactful and I would encourage others to watch it. I also loved Rust and Bone because the symbolism was visually and metaphorically stunning and I felt engaged for the whole duration of the film. The performances were so moving, they were so real and I think the director really reflected the restriction and entrapment that Stephanie felt. There are clearly many differences but also similarities between Rust and Bone and Mediterranea and my favourite of the two was Rust and Bone because I felt it impacted me more and I felt drawn in however lost focus at times with Mediterranea. So I will rate Rust and Bone 8/10.