Hana Nour writes:
Is knowledge really in nostalgia?!
maybe Everyone feels nostalgic for the past, but some do not know the meaning of the word “nostalgia”, which is the title of the movie by the Italian director “Mario Martoni”, written by “Ermanno Ria” and produced in 2022. The word “nostalgia” is Greek in origin and is used to express a person’s longing for his past, or a feeling Alienation and diaspora, and the urgent need to find a real homeland.
The director succeeds in choosing the foundation point well; As we see the film begins with a plane heading from “Egypt” to “Italy”. This plane expresses the state of the hero, “Phillis,” who is suspended in the air, just like this plane. He does not settle on a firm ground, and his soul remains confused between Egypt and Italy, between his present and his past.
Although the purpose of Felice’s visit to Naples is to visit his sick, old mother, Teresa, whose address he knows well, he decides to stay in a hotel where his room overlooks the city of Naples.
Before Phyllis leaves the hotel, we see him take off his gold watch, put it in the room’s locker, and lock the locker with a secret number. This event is the starting point in the film, although time is said to be gold, but Phyllis seems to want to disrupt the movement of time forward..
Felice wanders the streets of “Naples” following 40 years of absence, as if he is looking for something, he seems confused; Perhaps he feels that he has not left Egypt, or that it is the city of Naples that has not changed from what he left it on! The matter may also confuse the Egyptian viewer. He thinks that the streets of Naples are the same as the streets of Cairo.. The similarity seems great between the two cities in terms of the external appearance and the apparent material poverty in some streets and the appearance of people and houses.. and the beauty of the two cities also from the high places at night..
In the scene before Phyllis’ visit to his mother, we see him standing on the balcony of the room with his back to the city, which looks beautiful and luminous in the depths of the frame.
As for Phyllis, he is shaded by the dim lighting style, with only his lit cigarette barely visible, and perhaps the director wanted with this scene to make it clear that what awaits Phyllis is not bright, or perhaps it does not carry a point of light.
In his first meeting with his mother, he discovers that she sold the house in which he lived during his childhood and adolescence to get money.
And I preferred to stay in a small, semi-dark apartment.. Phyllis flips through the photo album; As nothing remains of his past except those pictures from his childhood and the youth of his parents, as well as those pictures that bring him together with his teenage friend “Spasiano”, with whom later events will reveal the secrets of his close relationship.
He tries once once more to persuade her to travel and live with him in Cairo, saying: “Cairo is just like Naples,” but the silence explains her attachment to her country. After Phyllis brings all his mother’s needs of toiletries, clean clothes and bedding, we see him perform ablution for Muslim prayer; We know that he is from a Muslim father and a Christian mother.
This scene in which Phyllis helps his mother take off her dirty clothes and then helps her take a bath is one of the most beautiful and poetic moments of the film, as the director added a new meaning to prayer, which is the performance of duty, the righteousness of the mother, and compassion.
The public shot also appeared in the bathroom of Phyllis “bathing” his mother; As an artistic painting, the director multiplied the beauty of its meanings with that musical background that fits a very sacred religious ritual..
Felice meets a man who loved his mother very much in the past, and they exchange a dialogue through which we know that Felice traveled 40 years ago from Naples with his Lebanese relative on his father’s side to Lebanon and then to Egypt, where he lived, worked, investigated and married following escaping from a polluted reality in Naples.. You see what crime he committed. Push Felice to escape from Naples?!
The film includes flashback clips illustrating Felice’s relationship with teenage friend Spasiano, and the crimes of pickpocketing and theft that that relationship carried… and laughter and loitering in the streets.
Was it really the main purpose of Felice’s visit to Napoli to see his mother? After the death of Phyllis’s mother his relationship with Naples was to come to an end; But in her farewell to the church, he befriends the priest “Luigi” and tries to use him to find a house in Naples.. and this shows his intention to move with his wife to her to live there..
Through Felice’s conversations with his wife over the phone, we discover that she is of Arab descent through her accent, that he loves her very much and his relationship with her seems successful, and that she is the one who incited him to visit Naples so that he might see his mother, as he never wanted to visit Naples.
But following the death of his mother, he wants to stay there! “Spasiano”, Felice’s teenage friend and partner in a tainted past, is what strongly attracts Felice to stay in Naples..
Frequent flashback scenes confirm his nostalgia for Spasiano and his boyhood days.. despite the shameful events it bears.. can a person escape his fate despite all the warnings?! Since Priest Luigi learned of Felice’s desire to meet Sebastiano…
He warns him and helps him in various ways to reverse his decision..because Spasiano did not succeed in building a stable and clean life like Felice..but rather took him into the past until he had a criminal network..
Integration with new friends is one of the ways that Pastor Luigi used to rescue Felice from the trap of his past.. In Felice’s meeting with Luigi’s friends, men and women, we see him immersed in the atmosphere to the point where the viewer thinks that his retreat from meeting Spasiano is not an impossible task..
We note in Felice’s saying to Luigi’s friends: “Egyptian pizza is better than Italian.” His attachment to Egypt as well. This attachment to Egypt, which Felice wants to transfer with him and his wife to Naples, became more evident when he attended an Egyptian singing party. He stopped dancing with joy and repeating the words of the Egyptian song, then made a video call with him. His wife shares with her the atmosphere of the party, assuring her that she will not miss Egypt when she lives in Naples.
Perhaps this scene in which Luigi’s friends Felice is drinking wine by Mario Martone can be credited; It showed a picture of a Muslim committed to his religiosity without exaggeration or extremism, as happens in many works of art.
Does religion have a role in the movie “Nostalgia”?!
Perhaps Mario Martoni wanted to say that religion is this tolerance, compassion, and acceptance of the other. This appeared in Felice helping his old mother to take a bath.. Then in Felice sharing their drink with Luigi’s friends, in addition to his very good relationship with Pastor Luigi, who became his closest friend and place of trust.. other than that. Pastor Luigi, despite his knowledge of Felice’s involvement in many crimes in his youth with Spasiano, did not stop helping him and advising him to return to Egypt and forget the past.
Perhaps at this point, the director will also have another vision of the concept of the homeland, because the homeland is not only the birthplace.. It may be that the homeland is the place where we were able to rebuild ourselves.
Mario Martoni says at the beginning of the movie: “Knowledge resides in nostalgia.” So should we really go back to the past to know ourselves?!
Not all of Phyllis’ warnings sufficed; Even Spasiano himself alerted him, who warned him, saying: “If you enter my world, I will enter yours.” That is, if you try to awaken your past, I will disturb your present.. Felice did not believe that Spasiano might not change, and he believed that as long as he was able to create himself once more and fix it; that everyone can do that..
The director paves the way for the end of the film with the music of Mozart’s funeral requiem.. At a time when Felice is walking happily regarding meeting his next wife to Naples.. Spasiano cuts his way, kills him and steals his wallet, and also steals from him the photos they collected in adolescence and leaves him dead in a street in Naples, which embraced him as a teenager and a child. .
The past and nostalgia may kill us, but can we survive?!
Hana Nour writes: Is knowledge really in nostalgia?! Everyone may feel nostalgic for the past, but some do not know the meaning of the word “nostalgia”, which is the title of the movie by Italian director “Mario Martoni” and written by “Ermanno Ria” and produced in 2022. The word “nostalgia” is Greek in origin and is used to express a person’s longing for his past, or The feeling of alienation and diaspora, and the urgent need to find a real homeland.. The director succeeds in choosing the point of establishment well, as we see the film begins with a plane heading from “Egypt” to “Italy.” That plane expresses the state of the hero, “Philes”, who is like this one hanging in the air. The plane is completely; it does not settle on a firm ground, and the soul remains confused between…
Hana Nour writes: Is knowledge really in nostalgia?!
Hana Nour writes: Is knowledge really in nostalgia?!
2023-02-16
The Y news
