Via Castellana Bandiera

Italy kicks off its Venice competition with Emma Dante’s reworking of her eponymous novel. The story of Via Castellana Bandiera is superficially simple: two cars face each other on a narrow street and neither driver is willing to let the other pass. However, the stories of the two women at the wheel are not as simple.

Dante is a stalwart of Italian theatre, but this is her directorial debut on the big screen and not content with being both writer and director, Emma Dante has cast herself in the lead. Rosa is an angry woman dragged back to Palermo by her grungy illustrator girlfriend Laura (played by the darling of Italian cinema, Alba Rohrwacher). The day starts badly as the two women bicker in the heat as they drive around the city. In a parallel story, we see an old woman visiting her daughter’s tomb at the cemetery. She’s something between Miss Haversham and The Simpsons’ mad cat lady (a mad dog lady in this case, as she feeds all the strays in the cemetery). This is Samira, played by another doyenne of Italian theatre, the wonderful Elena Cotta. Though silent for almost the entirety of the film, her expressive eyes and careworn features speak volumes as we gaze upon this tormented and downtrodden woman. She lives with her son-in-law, a man who cannot stand having this wizened Albanian woman in his house. There is one thing he admires: her stubborn refusal to move aside for anyone. Aware of her tenacity, the men of the house make bets with their neighbours in an attempt to make some money out of the vehicular face-off.

Although filmed in Palermo, we see little of the city. However, we are given some visual pointers: the city’s beach makes a brief appearance, whilst Monte Pellegrino presides over the proceedings. We are stuck in the rough outskirts of town not far from the commercial port. This is a part of the city that lives hand to mouth, the inhabitants juggling jobs and dealing in stolen goods to make a living. The residents state that this is an ungovernable street, even by Palermo’s standards. All the things that Rosa hates about her erstwhile hometown can be found in this narrow cul-de-sac.

Despite starting off worryingly, with the usual Italian histrionics, the film calms down as the cars come to a standstill. Dante does a good job of depicting in miniature many of the struggles of her fellow palermitani. The idea of women living on the edge (of a nervous breakdown, of society, of the patriarchal family) is conveyed convincingly and the two drivers give sound performances. This is a flawed but admirable debut from Dante. Whilst not a viable contender for the big prize, as we are in Venice it could easily pick up a gong or two.

[Rating:3/5]