Lto poverty, the strength not to resign, the expedients to carry on the family and afford at least the normal things. The marginal lives of two brothers in a southern country are the heart of The rematchfilm broadcast tonight at 9.15 pm on Rai 5. Based on a play by Michele Santeramo, later became his debut novel, The rematch is a film by Leo Muscato in which the characters are seemingly hopeless. To support them is the need, the will to find a way forward in a present without perspective. To trace their path, however, is the hope and the desire to take revenge on life.
The rematch: not just melodrama
Life spares nothing for the two brothers who live in the same building in two houses left to them by their father. The corporal, loan sharking, illegal and unprotected work they clash with bills to pay, tax bills, infertility and psychological difficulties in dealing with existence. To muffle the melodrama of these themes that almost refer to Verga’s epics of the Vanquished, however ci are some grotesque and paradoxical situations. And yet an (almost) happy ending that leaves the door open to hope, but above all celebrates family love.
Michele Cipriani, Denis Ozdogan, Sara Putignano and Michele Venitucci. (Rai)
The rematchcharacters
Sabino and Vincenzo, two brothers linked by great affection, and their wives Angela and Maja are the protagonists of The rematch. To interpret the two brothers are the Apulians Michele Venitucci, already protagonist of The soul mate by Sergio Rubini, e M.ichele Cipriani, in his first film interpretation. The wives are the Turkish actress, naturalized Italian, Deniz Ozdogan, and Sara Putignano. Sabino has a flower stand near the cemetery, he is married to Angela, a woman in such desperation as to prevent her from accepting his existence and taking care of her son Marco. His only consolation is to help the sisters who raised her. Vincenzo lives by selling the crops of the land inherited from his father and expects to become a father in turn because his wife Maja is pregnant.
Michele Venitucci in Sergio Rubini’s “L’anima mella”.
The rematchthe plot
Vincenzo is expropriated with an emergency measure of his land which is on the way of a highway under construction. So he convinces his wife Maja to have an abortion because it is not the right time for a child, and goes to ask a corporal for work. He begins to work daily in a greenhouse where plants are grown by fertilizing them with prohibited substances. Sabino also finds himself involved in the trade in agricultural poisons after being forced to sell the kiosk to pay off debts.
Among his problems there is also his wife Angela who wants to be a missionary in Africa and his son Marco who is bullied. When Vincenzo decides it is time to have a child, he discovers he is having trouble conceiving because of the poisons he has always used. From here a series of situations are triggered which, between the desperate and the grotesque, will lead to a bitter collective liberating laugh.
The music of Paolo Fresu
To embellish the film is Paolo Fresu’s trumpet. Who in the end signs an arrangement of the traditional love song of Sardinian music, No Potho Repose.
Paolo Fresu. (Jean Louis Neveu)
Selected in competition at Bifest 2020, it is part of the series Rai with Italian Cinema – Eight Rai Cinema films exclusively on RaiPlay: 8 films that, due to the pandemic, have failed to have adequate distribution in theaters e have been selected by Rai Cinema for the platform where you will be made available for free in 2020.
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