The immigrant experience won out thematically as the opening night film for this year’s Lavazza Italian Film Festival, but two films on the program about contemporary Italy and the people who choose to stay and take the problems head on are much more satisfying entertainments .
SCAMPIA’S GOLD may sound like a seafood spaghetti western but it’s an inspiring tale of a committed man trying to deter the errors of the past being visited on the youth of the present.
Like a gritty Neapolitan Karate Kid, SCAMPIA’S GOLD focuses on the discipline of a martial art to infuse discipline and respect in a neighbourhood bullied by Camorra gangs.
Hospital worker Enzo is a Judo sensei in the suburb of Scampia. Born and bred in the area, he is determined through his youth work to release his neighbourhood from the yoke of the criminals who rule the roost.
One of his students is his eldest son, Toni, who can’t quite understand why his father does not just up stumps and clear out of the basket case community.
Toni has a natural aptitude to the sport and is a contender to make the Italian Olympic Team, a dream in complete contrast with the nightmare of the Napoli neighbourhood where drug abuse and child prostitution are de rigueur.
A picture in praise of persistence and diligence, SCAMPIA’S GOLD is an uplifting homage to hope, featuring a charismatic performance by Giuseppe Fiorello as the fearless Enzo, who fosters a mojo in his dojo for the feckless youth of his community.
Directed by Marco Pontecorvo, best known as cinematographer on Fading Gigolo, Game of Thrones and Letters to Juliette, SCAMPIA’S GOLD is a crowd pleasing winner.
Tackling the traducing of tertiary education funding via a caper comedy pays off in Sydney Sibilia’s debut feature I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT TO.
State funding cuts combined with faculty politics finds genius neurobiologist researcher, Pietro, ousted from his university position and plunged into the petri dish of unemployment.
Discovering the lucrative market for designer drugs and a loophole in the law regarding the manufacture and distribution of recreational pharmaceuticals, Pietro gets together a band of similarly dismissed academics to create a cartel.
Comprising chemists, anthropologists, economists, and experts in semiotics, the diverse disciplines generate a brainstorming, gang busting enterprise of high ingenuity.
The quality of the chemistry and the text book marketing bring instant success with financial riches beyond any of the former academics wildest dreams. But such success breeds excess, and the operation looks like imploding.
Their success also brings the nasty attention of established drug dealers, killer criminal kingpins, unhappy that their turf is being invaded by these egghead upstarts. Party pooping police are also displeased at these new players flaunting their felony free status.
On the domestic front, Pietro faces the quandary of his partner’s profession as a drug rehabilitation case worker, and the friction that will cause if discovered.
A wry, robust, and raucous romp with something to say about the state of play in government’s role of continuing higher education, I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT TO is Breaking Bad out of Ocean’s Eleven with an added Roman élan.
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival runs September 18 – October 12 spread liberally across three Palace cinemas – Norton Street, Leichardt, Verona, Paddington, and the Chauvel, Paddington.
For more about lavazza italian film festival, visit http://www.italianfilmfestival.com.au
