Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Mon 22 Apr

Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani / Italy / 2012 / 76 min

As Michael Gove plans a revamp of the national curriculum, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s poignant production shows the importance of the Arts, with artistic pursuits transforming even the most domineering personalities. Using real convicts from Italy’s Rebibbia prison, we witness (in chronological order) sections of the rehearsal process of the jail’s annual theatre production, this year Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The film culminates in the play’s climactic ending being performed to a visitor-badge toting audience.

Shot predominantly in black and white, the rehearsals are punctuated by non-participating convicts or guards commenting on the proceedings. What is most apparent is the effect the redemptive power of art has on these hardened criminals, their non-professionalism becoming endearing because of how seriously they take the production. For the most part you forget the gravity of the crimes, however in one powerful scene the prisoner playing Brutus has to pause as he likens a line about stabbing to his own experiences. Near the play’s end, the chorus chant a refrain of “Freedom”. To begin with this feels like exacerbating the situation of their incarceration but with the unadulterated joy they express at the final bow, it feels like through the performance, they have achieved a momentary freedom from their otherwise monotonous sentences.

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