Mediterranea is a 2015 Drama film written and directed by
Jonas Carpignano. It follows two men and their dangerous journey travelling
from Africa to Italy for a better life. It focuses on the hostility they go
through as refugees travelling from country to country and the life and death
situations they are faced with.
Rust and Bone is a 2012 French Drama and Romance film
written and directed by Jacques Audiard. Alain leaves Belgium for Antibes to
live with his sister and her husband after he is put in charge of his young,
helpless son. Alain soon bond’s with killer whale trainer Stephanie, but their
bond strengthens after Stephanie suffers from a tragic accident.
In both the films the protagonists share a similar goal. To
make their families happy. In Mediterranea Ayiva wants to please his daughter
and give her the things she needs and wants. All he strives to do by travelling
to Italy is to earn. Alain has the same goal. Although this goal is not obvious
during the start of the film by the end this goal is obvious and Alain shows his
true feelings towards his son, which is that he ends up healthy and happy.
One theme that is shown in both is escapism. In Mediterranea
the film focuses predominantly on escapism as the protagonists Ayiva and Abas
are ‘escaping’ Africa in search of a better life for their families. By working
in Europe they not only want to escape the harsh reality of poor living in
Africa but they also want their families to escape the struggles of living in
Africa by sending gifts and money back from Europe in order to give their families
the lives they deserve. In Rust and Bone both protagonists are also attempting
to escape something in their lives. Alain tries to escape his feelings by
competing in bare knuckle fights but he also tries to escape his son. Alain isn’t
portrayed as the most caring father and is constantly trying to find excuses to
get away from his son, but we eventually see his fatherly nature shine through
when he must save his son. The other protagonist Stephanie on the other hand is
trying to escape something very different. After a traumatic event, Stephanie
loses her legs from below the knees. She tries to escape the feeling of
worthlessness. Stephanie wants to continue her life as normal but at times is
shown to start to give up. She also
escapes judgement of seeing someone disabled, she does this by being brave and
doing things such as being carried into the sea to swim.
Our themes for A2 film are power, poverty and conflict all
of which are used in the films which makes them both useful and potential case
studies. Mediterranea has a strong theme of power. The power is shown through
race. The black people who have come to Italy are the minority and the white
people are the majority. In one dramatic and traumatising scene Abas gets
beaten up, nearly killed by a group of white men. They have ultimate power in
this scene, to be able to determine whether someone lives and dies is an
example of too much power being given to someone.
Poverty is also used in this film and is evident from the
very start, to have to move countries in order to give something to your family
is an obvious sign of high poverty. This is still going on in the world today,
people move countries in search of a better life due to the poverty and
desperation that is evolving. Poverty is also used in Rust and Bone, which we
can see from just looking at their living arrangement. Alain and his son now
live in a small house with Alain’s sister and her husband and outside in their
back garden is where they keep their animals is tiny penned cages in horrible
conditions. Also Alain takes part in bare knuckle fighting to make money which
can be devastating for his health.
Overall both films were evident of our main themes and
included other themes also. I enjoyed them both as they both told very
different stories but followed their struggles to show how life is very
difficult for people. They also represent different mediums. For example Rust
and Bone represents disability and Mediterranea represents race.
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