Samad, the review of the film by Marco Santarelli

Radicalization in prison, the short circuit of the second generations of immigrants in our country, a conflict with an almost Shakespearean flavor which in its debut feature film Marco Santarelli decides to tell through the filter of the prison drama. Samadin theaters from May 13th, retraces, offering a synthesis, the director’s past experiences and the themes that run through his previous works, all documentaries such as One Thousand and One Nights, Dustur (Constitution), Our, Secondary schoolwhich they explore different microcosms and themes: that of the school in the industrial outskirts of Taranto, drug addiction, the living conditions of foreign prisoners in Italian prisons or the varied world of Italian religious communities. His journeys have always been observation trips and even in Samad he does not fail to follow this principle: investigating reality to better understand its nuances and go beyond the surface of what in most cases the collective imagination tends to stigmatise.

The story: a prison drama

The story focuses on Samad, the name of the protagonist who gives the film its title. Samad is a second generation Moroccan boy, his mother was Christian and died while he was in prison, his father was Muslim; He has already paid his bill with the law, now he is free again, he has a job as a gardener, he has started reading the Bible and lives with his sister Fatima, a young Muslim woman, mother of a little girl. For Samad it is the beginning of a new life, made possible thanks to Father Agostino, friend and mentor, who takes care of Muslim prisoners in prison. The mistakes and stumbles of the past now seem distant, at least until Father Agostino invites him to prison so that he can talk about his new life as a free man and be an example for his companions.

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But it’s the wrong day: a fight explodes the anger and resentment of the inmates, who they decide to barricade themselves in the prison library. Samad will find himself in the middle of a revolt and having to choose a side: Muslim or Christian, accomplice or hostage?

Second generations, between a sense of guilt and a destiny already sealed

The film offers an interesting insight into the second Arab generations in our country, it tells of the difficult search for an identity in often hostile territories; a journey that will take the viewer behind bars into the varied galaxy of foreign prisoners. The free will, apostasy, religion, radicalization in prison: inside there is all this but also the torment of a protagonist full of tears, not least the one that puts him in the position of having to choose between the betrayal of his former companions and his very personal search for freedom. As the director herself explains, Samad was born during the filming of Dustur (Constitution) and the idea arrived “filming hours and hours of meetings between a volunteer of the Catholic faith and a group of Muslim prisoners, on topics related to the principles of the Italian Constitution and the Arab Constitutions”.

The idea of ​​a cast made up mostly of non-professional actors is a good idea, boys that Santarelli met in his previous works shot in prison and young Moroccan artists from the Bolognese collective Cantieri Meticci; one of the few professional actors is the film’s protagonist, Mehdi Meskar. A first work full of food for thoughtbut who often pays the price for one lack of credibility in the dialogues between the actors and in the interactions between the characters. Small forcings, which do not undermine the value of a cinema of civil commitment.