Cannes double: La Nostra Vita and Life, Above All

Cannes (Official Selection) – La Nostra Vita and (Un Certain Regard) – Life, Above All. Two very different films, in two different competitions, with one thing in common: a phenomenal central performance in each. Emma Rowley gives a standing ovation to Elio Germano and Khomotso Manyaka.

Ah, films. They have rules and the more of 'em we watch, the clearer they become. One rule is this: if a film ever opens with a portrait of a happy family, you can be sure that something nasty awaits them just around the corner. And indeed, that's the case in the Italian film Our Life (La Nostra Vita) which introduces us to the vibrant, affectionate (as well as handily young and photogenic) De Rosa clan: father Claudio, glowing, pregnant Elena and their two small boys. When tragedy strikes – which it does with some alacrity – Claudio throws himself into work. He is a building foreman and recently found the body of an alcoholic night-watchman on site, at the bottom of a shaft that should have been closed off. At the time, he hides his gruesome discovery as the police will close down the works to investigate and neither he nor his team can afford the project to be delayed. But after experiencing his own loss, Claudio is determined to better himself and uses this information to blackmail his boss into giving him his own site to manage. Much of the plot charts his stubborn determination to make his site work, while dealing with the realities of contracts that reward timeliness over quality; his crew of illegal workers and his struggle to pay them; and an ongoing battle against a system that's stacked against him.

But back to movie rules. This flick obeys every single one of them, to the degree that you could probably map out the entire plot after watching for ten minutes. That in itself is not a terrible thing: films that aim for realism often eschew shocks and sudden turnarounds. But the maddening thing about it is that its grasp on realism is so unsteady. One moment, you're watching something that feels psychologically veracious (like Claudio's well-meaning dealer/pimp buddy offering the devastated man “a pill, a shag, a line”), the next you're slapped in the face by a trite homily that would be more at home on a prime-time sitcom. The tonal schism most often occurs between Claudio's work and home life. The problem seems to be that while exploring the realities of life for a working-class Italian family, director Daniele Luchetti fell in love with them, and couldn't bear to show any member of the clan in anything less than the most flattering light. Such a bunch of loving, sharing, life-filled people you have never seen. It unfortunately removes quite a lot of the drama from this drama.

Thus, for the most part, in spite of engaging with social issues like immigration, racism, and the country's lax attitude to legality where money-making is concerned, it often feels like a superior TV saga. But the film has a secret weapon in the form of a wonderful, charismatic performance from Elio Germano. He carries the film effortlessly, much as Javier Bardem did with Biutiful. (This is largely why the IndieMovies team tipped both Bardem and Germano as likely to win the best actor prize at Cannes – though we did not foresee that they'd share it.) One scene at a funeral, in which the camera holds his face in an uneasy close-up of grief, while he sings, bellows and finally screams along to the song that's playing, moved this reviewer to (surreptitious) tears.

La Nostra Vita was a huge success in its home country and its likeability and upbeat conclusion should see it doing well in other territories. At a snappy 98 minutes, it's carried along by its own momentum and a knockout lead performance.

Rating on a scale of 5 building scams: 2.5

Release date: TBC
Directed by: Daniele Luchetti
Written by: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Daniele Luchetti
Cast: Elio Germano, Raoul Bova, Isabella Ragonese, Luca Zingaretti, Stefania Montorsi
Rating: TBC
Running time (mins): 98

According to rumours at the festival, a few films from the Un Certain Regard category were at one stage considered for the main competition. The movie that was finally chosen was Wang Xiaoshuai's Chongquing Blues (one of two in the initial line-up that we didn't get to see) but Life, Above All was also considered.

It's hard to discuss the subject matter of this film without making the whole enterprise sound overly worthy and difficult to watch, but bear with me because Life, Above All is a genuinely well-rounded drama. It’s dedicated to the estimated 800,000 AIDS orphans in South Africa but it's not an issue film. Rather, its tale of a clear-sighted girl encountering small-mindedness in her home town and battling gossipy neighbours and nosy do-gooders should prove resonant, recalling novels like To Kill A Mockingbird and Jane Eyre. That the film is an adaptation of the 2004 novel Chandra’s Secrets by Allan Stratton, may explain its literary and thematic antecedents.

12-year-old Chandra lives in a small town outside of Johannesberg. The opening scene finds her buying a coffin for her baby sister. She is alone because her mother is curled up in a state of paralysing grief following her child's death, and her stepfather is out drowning his sorrows at the local bar. As the story unfolds, Chandra must discover and cope with not only with the cause of her mother's sickness but the perplexing desire of those around her to vilify the vulnerable and ill. Her burgeoning understanding leads her on a quest (both emotional and finally, literal) that allows her to stand up against prejudice.

The story is handled lightly, its thought-provoking message embedded into novelistic and often surprisingly funny scenes. In one sequence, the well-meaning family friend Auntie Tafa has taken Chandra and her ailing mother to an apparently gifted and famous doctor. When they arrive, Chandra is the only one who can read the doctorates hanging on his wall – and she discovers that they are merely commendations from the drugs company that employs him, for shifting large amounts of their branded herbal medication. Using a subtle means of coded blackmail, she is able to ensure that they do not pay his exorbitant prices without risking retribution from the pompous man or stealing away her mother’s hope for a cure.

Director Oliver Schmitz's most well-known work to date is probably the 'Place des Fêtes' segment of the anthology film, Paris Je T'aime. The scene involved a pair of star-crossed lovers who recognise each other just too late: an immigrant from Lagos who had just been stabbed, and the paramedic who attends to him. Viewers will probably recall it as a standout segment – poignant and understated – in a series of hit-and-miss, star-stuffed scenes. He has achieved something special again on a difficult theme that could easily have become sentimental or overly didactic and also created balanced, flawed characters; a feat that not every director in the main competition achieved.

But the film's success hinges on a phenomenal central performance by Khomotso Manyaka. It was one of the best we saw in the festival, in any of the competition categories. She is able to hint at depths and inner conflicts that elude much older and more seasoned actors, and it's her interpretation of the role that makes the film what it is.

Rating on a scale of 5 neighbourhood curtain twitchers: 3

Release date: TBC
Directed by: Oliver Schmitz
Written by: Dennis Foon, based on a novel by Allan Stratton
Cast: Khomotso Manyaka, Lerato Mvelase, Keaobaka Makanyane, Tinah Mnumzana
Rating: TBC
Running time (mins): 105