06/08/2021 - The Belorussian-born but Italian by adoption director Hleb Papou presents his first powerful and honest feature film in the Locarno Film Festival’s Cineasti del presente competition

After a highly promising debut – his first short film The Red Forest was selected for Cannes’ Short Film Corner in 2013 and his graduate short The Legionnaire, made under the aegis of Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, was selected for Venice’s Critics’ Week in 2017, as well as the 2018 Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Future Frames) - Hleb Papou undoubtedly felt that all eyes were upon him. And the interest he has enjoyed appears to be thoroughly deserved, judging by his first feature film, also entitled The Legionnaire [+see also:
trailer
interview: Hleb Papou
film profile], which draws inspiration from the director’s own experience as an immigrant in Italy and manages to tug at a plethora of heartstrings. The film has been selected for the Locarno Film Festival, within the Cineasti del presente line-up.

As stressed by the director himself, his deepest desire was to discuss the multiculturalism inhabiting Italy today, with its ever-growing number of children born of immigrants, who were born and have grown up like any other children, and who must come to terms with their own identities which are often highly diverse. The Legionnaire starts with the story of two African-Italian brothers who appear to exhibit contrasting personalities - one is a member of one of the “toughest” Roman police forces (played by the more than convincing Germano Gentile) and the other (Maurizio Bousso) is committed to defending his community, the members of which have been holed up in a squat for years, including his own mother – before expanding its scope to encompass an entire community who, like many inhabitants of the “Eternal City”, are forced to live a hand-to-mouth existence in constant fear of losing the roofs above their heads.

Leveraging the apparent differences and nigh-on irreconcilable ambitions which exist between these two brothers, Hleb Papou speaks to us more generally about the difficulties involved in living within a society which is, at times, overwhelmingly opposed to welcoming the differences which already inhabit it. Why shouldn’t Daniel have the right to wear a police uniform? Instead of having to adapt to the violence, chauvinism, homophobia and racism which seem fated to characterise a “real” policeman, why shouldn’t he be allowed to educate his squad by way of his own life experience? Far removed from the stereotypes which (too often) pervade films on modern-day Italy, veering between idealisation and gangland, action plots, Hleb Papou offers up a sensitive film highlighting the ambiguities inherent to a nation which is still trying to find itself. What will become of Italy if it doesn’t find a way to change, given the hundreds of thousands of children born of immigrants who will define the country tomorrow? If it doesn’t find the courage to face up to its contradictions and tend to its open wounds, the future of the nation will be anything but bright. The complexity which springs from the meeting of different cultures is rendered authentically by the director, thanks to stripped back and effective images which leave room for imagination and introspection. Hleb Papou speaks of a world which he has close and personal experience of, and this can be felt in the urgency with which he conveys Daniel’s silent angst and the built-up rage of the latter’s brother. It’s a sincere first film which definitely won’t leave viewers cold.

The Legionnaire is produced by Clemart (Italy) in co-production with MACT Productions (France). Fandango Sales are handling international sales.

(Translated from Italian)