Locarno Diary #4: Good cop, bad cop

by Elisa Giudici

Locarno Film Festival's symbol is a leopard: before any screening a "pardo" (italian for pard) walks across the screen roaring, just before the edition's motto appears (2021's motto is "Cinema is back"). All prizes are shapes as small, stylized felines, the most important one being Pardo d'Oro, the Golden Leopard. Pardo is for Locarno what Lion is for Venice and Palms are for Cannes...with some interesting results.

The main colours of Locarno Film Festival are yellow and black, as in pard's coat. Pard spot motif can be seen everywhere: window shops, café, restaurants. Everyone in Locarno wants to celebrate the main event of the summer season. So during the Festival there is a little "pard mania" everywhere...

On to the movies! Today I followed tips and recommendation from friends and colleagues, and discovered two really interesting movies about the secret lives of real cops. Such a narrow topic, such different movies in tone, genre and scope.

Il legionario Dir: Hleb Papou
Daniel is a second generation Italian cop in a Celere unit (a so-called "mobile unit") who is in charge of security and riot control during public events, sport competitions, protests. He pretends not to care about the racism about his black skin (other cops call him "Ciobar", a famous chocolate-based drink) in order to be accepted in his squad. The camaraderie and macho attitude in Celere unit is a crucial part of its own identity, more than in other police departments. Celere members (celerini) consider themselves a sort of second family. The bonds between mens are forged both by a toxic environment of light-bullying and by an everyday life dealing with potentially dangerous situations, often being asked to use violence against the general population to the right extend (which is an ambiguous target, especially when cops despises protesters for their political believes or ethnicity).

The unit boss nicknamed Aquila ('Eagle' in Italian) genuinely cares about Daniel, who is hiding to him and all his colleague a secret: his family is not dead, but lives in an occupied building in San Giovanni neighborhood in Rome. Il legionario tries to convey how the spiritually distance between the two families Daniel is trying to be part of. Celere cops are known to often have sympathies for far right movements and xenophobic positions, while living in private buidings occupied by poor but really organized groups of families which have the precise, opposite political stance. "Occuping Culture" in Rome is more than a desperate move for survival: it is a way of living, a political gesture, an alternative to the mainstream way of living, often seen by others as 'something only Communists would do'.

The feature is based on a previous short by the same director, but it lacks the complexity to justify the new length. Papou's movie suffers the comparison with 2012 ACAB - All Cops Are Bastards by Stefano Sollima, a movie on the same topic but visually stronger and more developed. For the national audience there is nothing new to learn about the two opposite worlds living the same city here since the screenplay is predictable. That said it's a solid feature and I really liked Germano Gentile as Daniel. He is quite good at giving the impression of hiding something, from both the other characters and the audience.

The general debate on immigration in Italy is still fixed in an us/them logic, second generation Italians are part of the Italian reality for decades, but they are still facing the never ending dilemma: leaving behind their own cultural identity to aspire to a sort of assimilation or fight against it while being seen as foreigners forever?

Leynilögga (Cop Secret) Dir: Hannes Þór Halldórsson
Consider this the Icelandic take on 21 Jump Street remake and Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz, with a very simple but effective message to give to audiences familiar with super muscular, macho movies about die hard cops. The two protagonists of Hannes Þór Halldórsson's parody of cop movies hate each other. The "supercop" Bussi (Auðunn Blöndal) is the least professional successful professional you can imagine.

He does his job while consuming lots of alcohol and using his guns way too freely to resolve any problem. Nevertheless national TV is always eager to interview him. Ex model turned cop Hörður (Egill Einarsson) is his nemesis: rich, handsome and a little posh, he is the only cop who can match Bussi's records. When a strange group of robbers starts targeting iIcelandic banks with robberies during which nothing seems to be stolen, Hörður and Bussi have to work together as a team to solve the mystery.

I don't want to give away any more but if you are interested, I recommend seeing it without reading full length reviews to preserve the jokes and the subject matter of the mystery. I decided to give it a try having received a lot of enthusiastic recommendations. While I'm a little less enthused than my colleagues it is a funny parody about the many paroxysms of the genre, in particular the specific kind of masculinity mainstream movies tend to attach to characters working as police. It is unexpected to see a comedy like this in Locarno (and in the main competition selection!) so, for the sake of variety in tone and scope, I really appreciate their choice to include this movie. 

Comments

[Rama]

The Indonesian movie that I wanted you to watch just won Golden Leopard. I SAID WHAT I SAID!

[Elisa G]

@Rama
I read your comment back then Rama…you just need to wait a couple of days to read something about the movie here on TFE.

Thanks for the tip, really appreciated!

[Appreciative Reader]

Thank you for writing about all these festivals.

It is lovely to hear from someone present, and keeps up a cheering feeling of connection.