words by Mette Vaabengaard
Italian film won the Golden Bear for best film at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani can hardly be said to represent the future of Italian film. Yet the 80 and 82 year old brothers from San Miniato in Tuscany won the prestigious international film festival in Berlin with their docudrama Caesar must die (Cesare deve morire).
In the 1970s and 80s, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani were known for their political and literary costume dramas such as The Night of Shooting Stars (La Notte di San Lorenzo), Father and Master (Padre padrone) and Chaos (Kaos).
In Caesar Must Die, the Italian filmmakers explore the boundaries between art and life. The film shows a staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in Rome’s maximum security prison, Rebibbia, with inmates playing all the roles. Following rehearsals for this stage production over a six month period, the film demonstrates how the universality of Shakespeare’s language helps the actors to understand their roles and immerse themselves in the interplay of friendship and betrayal, power, dishonesty and violence. The film does not dwell on the crimes these men have committed in real life; but draws parallels between the classical drama and the world of today, while describing the commitment displayed by all those involved and showing how their personal hopes and fears flow into the performance.
"Reading Shakespeare, the actors, these prisoners, are talking about freedom, about political power and corruption, about violence and murder", the Italian directors explained. "They saw the lines were not just lines, they were part and parcel of their lives inside".
While Caesar Must Die is designed as a drama, all the inmates use their real names and recite their real life stories when they are introduced at the beginning of the film.
"We said they could use any name they like and make up biographical details but none did, they all told their real stories," said Paolo Taviani. "They realized this film would be seen in theatres, maybe by people, by friends, who had forgotten them. This was their way of crying out: We're here! We're alive!"
In addition to Berlin's Golden Bear, Caesar Must Die also won the best film honour presented by the independent ecumenical jury at the festival.
