The box office record and the controversies. ‘Good Way‘ alone is the driving force behind Italian cinema which celebrates the return of the Zalone-Nunziante duo to the big screen. But in ‘Good Way‘ Tarek also stands out, a Palestinian director above everything and everyone, played excellently by Hossein Taheri that a LaPresse he admits: “It wasn’t obvious to find such success right away. During filming there was the fear of disappointing but also the awareness that a winning couple was back together. Nunziante and Zalone are both authors, they collaborate a lot during filming, they are complementary. They compensate each other, they have this ability to create unique situations, out of the conventional. They don’t do obvious, vulgar comedy based on clichés. It’s a continuous explosion, as an actor you try to study the mechanism of comedy and when you see Checco Zalone you see innate talent.”
Il film talks about the father-daughter relationship, but also between divorced parents, in addition to the typical political-social themes such as the marked difference between social classes, homophobia, a certain type of racism and detachment in full style ‘tacky‘: “For the international scope, the journey between Italy, France and Spain, the European journey, I find that there is a profound attention to the issues that are affecting the world, not just Italy. There is this girl, Cristal (Letizia Arnò, ed.), who is looking for a life experience in which she can drag everyone along. This aspect is not just Italian, it is an instance that can be shared in other countries and in fact it also speaks perfectly to other countries, not just Italy”.
Hossein had worked with before Nunziante-Zalone in ‘Che Bella Giorno’ in 2011, but according to the actor ‘Buen Camino’ could deserve even more than the scepter of film of the year in Italy: “In my opinion it manages to communicate even beyond Italy. And Zalone manages to escape from the regional character. There are jokes that also concern what is being experienced elsewhere. It’s difficult to do comedy, someone always dissatisfies him, but it’s about having the lightness of a joke that doesn’t necessarily reflect the absolute truth.” A film that according to Taheri “could have the depth” to also compete in some international competitions. “I’m sure there are situations that can also be exported”. For now the cast is enjoying the success of ‘Buen Camino’, against which there was no shortage of controversy for the joke about “Gaza mia…”. “Honestly, I find it unfair to talk about it in an artistic and creative context. I have always been a committed artist, but in this case they just made a film that wanted to entertain. There was no desire for a stance or commitment of a certain type. Reducing this film to a joke frankly seems offensive to me in the face of the tragedy of a people and their defense.” Born in Rome but of Iranian origins, Taheri adds: “My bond with Iran is very strong, fully cultural, emotional, sentimental, I have a part of the family that is there, even if I don’t agree with many things about the country’s government policy. I have a part of the family that is there. The war? The unpleasant thing was seeing your country bombed, but I am neither an anti-Semite nor anti-Israeli. It was certainly a country attacked against international law and I I defend because it doesn’t deserve war.”
His origins, over a 35-year career, have led him to play the role of an Arab attacker, a Saudi emissary, commander Mustafa in the Order of Secret Things, and Al Zarkawi in ‘Nasiryia – Not to Forget’. Now also the committed Palestinian director: “At the beginning I suffered a little from this, I spent 25 years in theater reciting Alfieri’s hendecasyllable Italian. Finding yourself playing characters who speak Middle Eastern languages, or Italian with a markedly dirty and uncertain accent, at the beginning I thought that this was a sort of descent into hell in my career”, he jokes about it, even if then “I said to myself ‘I must have the courage to have the feeling of who looks at me’, if they see me in this way maybe there is something… In Italy a sort of creative laziness arises: ‘If it works there why do we have to move it?’. In the end I have to thank, because I had a career that maybe I wouldn’t have had, but it also limited me. In France, where I live, they want Italian and I do Italian there.
The France it’s more advanced, it’s multicultural, there they don’t ask you if you’re French, Italian or Arab. We need to understand that today one can be Italian in many ways.” According to the actor, “the great limit of Italian creative cinema is the inability to read reality. The film ‘Buen Camino’ knows how to break down categories, beyond Zalone’s success, with his genius it is capable of speaking on multiple levels and tells how we live. Consider that there is a large movement of second and third generation Italian actors who complain that there are no roles for them, other than the outcast, the immigrant or the loser. But people move, mix, begin to live complex realities. Even at a governmental level, the image of Italy is that of the country where there is always sunshine, comedy, colours, but it is humiliating to think that this country is this image. Zalone’s virtue is that he always undermines Italian and also many clichés.” After yet another record at the box office, the political diatribe between right and left also broke out around ‘Buen Camino’: “Comedy must have the courage not to take sides but to say everything without any hesitation. I don’t know if we are right or left, it wouldn’t make sense to ask. It would be something that would stop a creative process. But I must say that there is a cultural poverty of politics that is embarrassing, since they are no longer able to express anything other than mediocre figures, they become attached to other things. They should return to politics, regardless of left and right.”
Ultimately, what is Checco Zalone’s secret? “The ability to remain true to oneself, to one’s intuition, to one’s intelligence, not to seek success. Comparisons? Checco invented a mask – concludes Taheri – for me he is at times a Totò, a Charlie Chaplin, Sordi when he was an Italian in all his facets, in some ways he is Woody Allen”.
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