10/09/2010

Walter Stokman set out to make a film about a Neapolitan forensics expert when he first got the idea for the documentary Venice Days title Scena del Crimine (“Scene of the Crime”). Once he got to Naples, however, he found a city teeming with stories to be told. The ones he focused on are all in some way connected to Naples’ underworld, yet are thankfully devoid of clichés. Stokman gets further credit from not once mentioning the word “camorra” (the Neapolitan mafia).

Scena del Crimine is divided into seven “Scenes”, or chapters, on a juvenile detention centre; a middle-aged woman whose sons have had problems with drugs and the law; surveillance footage of hold-ups; the aforementioned coroner, and the co-ed Nunzietella military school, among others.

The look is clean, the images a series of stark photographs that are never of a postcard Naples. Stokman shows a rare sensibility for a foreigner in capturing the enigmatic, mythic city without waxing poetic about it or glorifying the petty thugs he spoke with. He even offers a playful, fish-eye ride on a moped through the tiny streets and garages. The soundtrack mixes Neapolitan song and minimalist piano pieces with echoes of Philip Glass.

What emerges are small stories of people struggling to survive in a city like any other, where the poor have few options offered them. Like Mauro of Scene 6, a man under house arrest who says, “I’ve stolen to give meaning to my life, to feel life. You are dead if you don’t give meaning to your life.”

Scene del Crimine was produced for €300,000 by Frank van den Engel for Zeppers Film & TV with the participation of Dutch broadcaster VPRO. It will be distributed theatrically next year in Holland. The film is handled internationally by Wide Management.