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Once You’re Born You Can No Longer Hide |
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Contributed by Sara Schieron
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Wednesday, 09 November 2005 |
Foreign film is known for it's particularly adept portrayal of
bittersweet moments. And Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide
features many examples of the poignant ambiguities we so frequently
miss in American Cinema. |
Sandro's swimming coach has told his mother that while 13-year-old
Sandro is good in the water, he lacks drive. So when Sandro falls off
of a yacht on a family cruise and waits, frightened in the cold water,
what we see of him is not his lack of drive, but his role as a child,
not spoiled, but pampered by the luxuries his family has provided. A
pregnant and complex period in the water passes and just as Sandro
sinks into sleep, he is saved and brought on board a ship of illegal
immigrants.
Sandro comes to bond with Radu, a Rumanian who tells him not to trust
anyone, not him, nor his sister Alina. When the Coast Guard brings him
on shore, he learns that his new friends are relying upon Italy's
policy of retaining immigrating minors. Though Radu saved Sandro life,
it is doubtful he is 17 and probable he is not who he claims to be.
This socially conscious, coming of age story begins deliberately.
Mentions of pace and the importance of "slowing down" are littered
throughout. So how logical it is when the end of the first act ends the
protagonist's vacation. Sandro's estrangement from his parents comes
with many allusions to their places "in the dark" or stranded in a
world out of focus. When Sandro is retrieved from the Welcome Station,
his parents' pause, half in the shadows, and his father restrains his
mother from touching him as he sleeps. Though the shadows of his
parents (played by Alesssio Boni and Michela Cescon) are part of their
standing forms, we see Sandro's shadow separate from him when he
confronts his parents about helping Rudo and Alina. This is one of many
indicators of Sandro's transformation.
After escaping the Welcome House they find that Sandro's home is not a
safe haven, so they leave his house in the night and steal small things
from to help them along. Sandro's mother's refusal to record the crime
is contrasted to his father's anger at Sandro's sensitivity, for though
he's betrayed, Sandro still fights for Rudo and Alina, saying they need
affection and protection. Moments of weighty silence punctuate dramatic
spells in the life of the privileged while moments of great volume
(possibly indicating the power of small sounds made by many) denote the
profound tragedies of the deprived.
While never depicting the immigrants as "others", the film does
identify the opinions of natives who speak to Sandro, and what the film
postulates is that immigrants and the natives are all part of the body
that is Italy. At school, Sandro's teacher instructs him that the
venial blood and the arterial blood don't mix thanks to a dividing wall
that separates the right from the left. And though the worlds these two
bodies inhabit are eventually separated into safe containment, the same
land contains them, and that land has a pulse we can hear in the waves.
Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide opens this year's New Italian
Film Festival. A co-production of the New Italian Cinema Events and our
own San Francisco Film Society this week long festival is co-sponsored
by the Italian Cultural Institute and will be holding a diverse and
intelligent collection of screenings at the Kabuki Theatre between
November 13th and the 20th. |
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