On Friday 16th 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, 2nd 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.
