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Contributed by Sara Schieron
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Monday, 19 December 2005 |
The film begins with direct address. Bobby Sands tells us the parable
of the lark told to him by his grandfather. "The cruelest thing a
person can do is to cage a lark". Larks, he explains, exist to be free
and to remind us of freedom. The cruel man who caged the lark asked him
to sing and when the lark refused the man covered his cage with a dirty
black cloth and took away his sunshine until finally he surrendered to
death. The character of Bobby tells us this in a sequence that seems
like a dream. Cutting between the direct address and a caged lark that
seems outside of the world of the cell which confines Bobby, this
moment of intrusion and insight appears as if external of the narrative
and offers us our guiding metaphor. This character, this cell and this
lark will be the film's allegories for human strength, civil injustice,
and martyrdom.
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Loosely based on the memoirs of Bobby Sands, a political prisoner and
IRA member, the film is set in the Long-Kesh prison where Bobby spent
his final years. Due to a denial of the rights given to political
prisoners, Bobby and his fellow inmates have their clothing taken from
them and are given prison uniforms to keep them warm. Refusing to be
dressed as common criminals, he and the other inmates are exposed to
the cold in their windowless cells. Though prison guards, deny him
access to pen and paper, beat him, and take away his bathing
privileges, he still writes political poetry. On stolen pieces of
toilet paper, Bobby's writings circulate the fissures that separate the
cracked cell walls. A metaphor for the necessity of his revolutionary
activity as well as the collective efforts that make this protest
essential, Bobby's poetry is passed from cell to cell as inspiration.
In many ways the film is a chamber play. Though we move through
different rooms within the prison (the guards' quarters, the director's
office, the visitation room) the majority of the narrative takes place
in Bobby's cell. Bobby's cell is not singly a space of confinement; it
is also the setting for Bobby's sojourns into dream life. A clear
reference to the cage of the skylark, which is involved in our opening
scene and also found in the office of malevolent prison director,
Bobby's cell takes on many different meanings. These meanings are
alluded to in a scene that takes place late in the film, when Bobby is
finally given toilet paper by a sympathetic guard. Bobby does not write
with it, rather, he creates a pattern with it on the floor. This
pattern, a rough snowflake is somehow an icon of the echo of his cell:
the meaning it communicates to the world around it. It is mentioned
throughout that political prisoners are icons to the public that they
are looked toward for inspiration and so are like symbols or
saints. This makes their protest even more crucial as it is
critical these political prisoners refuse to be appear as criminals.
Bobby is devout. If he dies, he will die a martyr.
"The Silence of the Skylark" screens at the Kabuki Theatre as part of
the New Italian Film Festival. Screenings held on Friday November 18th
at 9:30pm and Saturday November 19th at 1:30pm.
Please read my group interview summary with director David Ballerini,
in which I along with a group of MFA students from the Academy of Art
University ask him about the IRA, the film's reliance upon the memoirs
and the issues of the Italian film industry.
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