With documentaries on the upsurge many films now seem to be benefiting from blending flavorful fact with the structure of fiction, and Muscardin's 'Billo' ('Billo il grand Dakhaar') is another good and original examplea very watchable little film about the African immigrant experience in Italy. 'Billo's' protagonist is a young Senegalese trained as a tailor who comes to Rome to make his fortune in the world of fashion, and stars Thierno Thiam, the actual hiphop fashion designer its about (according the RAI, in real life music is his main thing and fashion more of a hobby).
Billo is just a name Thierno gave a woman outside a disco one night. As an illegal African immigrant he has entered with the deck stacked against himbut this is no downbeat tale of woe. An otherwise nice employer, an upholsterer, suspects him of attempted rape, when it was that same woman who has tried to seduce him in the store. Before that he's jailed as an Islamic terrorist when all he was doing was selling pirated CD's and DVD's. On the other hand, he's a big handsome guy and there are Italian women who want him. When he becomes friendly through his mentor and countryman Pap (Paul N'Dour) with Pap's roommates, gay couple Paolo and Paolo (Marco Bonini, Paolo Gasparini), who run a gym, he meets Paolo's sister Laura (Susy Laude), who's instantly smitten; to her friends he soon becomes "the black hunk." In some ways things go all too well, because there's a pretty girl waiting for him back home too. The way Thierno is torn between the two women dramatizes the duality of his life. He loves the freedom and opportunity of Italy socially and professionally, but he's still an African sustained by the strong values he learned in Senegal as a youth.
The film begins with striking images of fires on the African beach reflected in Theirno's eyes. Flashbacks take us back to his religious mentor or marabout (Boubacar Ba) who trains him in the Koran when he's a small boy. Then as an adolescent we see him working in a shop and going to a tailoring school. He loves a cousin named Fatou (Carmen de Santos) and she loves him. She's from a richer branch of his family and they're told to stay away from each other but they meet secretly through his youth: she becomes the pretty girl back home. Thierno's mother Diara (Daba Soumarè) is a regal and authoritative lady. When he leaves home he must perform a special ritual that means he will come backthough Diara is suspicious, because his father disappeared.
Muscardin's first feature (her second was a documentary about Roberto Rossellini's 'Rome, Open City') was 'Days' ('Giorni') about a gay couple, one of whom had HIV; it was notable for a cool eye and nifty editing. 'Billo' too is intelligently edited, notably in the interweaving of early life with adult experience, and this is enhanced by gorgeous colors. That is one way that Thierno's designs bring African energy into Rome, but the camera takes full advantage of the Senegalese women's traditional elegance. All of which is enhanced further by a choice soundtrack provided by Youssou N'Dour, who is the African co-producer. Muscardin is good at showing parent-child interaction, which has parallels hereparticularly between Laura and her mother (Luisa De Santis) and Thierno and his. Interesting parallels and contrasts are also drawn between Paolo's independence as a gay person and Thierno's violation of local norms as an African Muslim. But this sounds too serious: this is above all a droll, surprising romantic comedy that also happens to be smart and clearheaded in its use of realistic material, and adept with documentary footage and non-actors. In fact Laura Muscardin seems to be as smart and clearheaded and fresh in her outlook and adept in her methods as any of the younger Italian directors today.
Shown as part of the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at Lincoln Center June 2007.
