Notturno (2020)

Directed by: Gianfranco Rosi | 100 minutes | documentary

‘Notturno’ is a difficult documentary, maybe not so much to watch. The film by the courageous and determined Italo-American Gianfranco Rosi was made in the border region of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and follows the simple, daily worries of a family, a hunter, a care institution and life in the refugee camps. Does that express hope? Rather a kind of sober insight that people simply survive with the looming rumble of war in the background, without drama – still water with the occasional beautifully filmed sunset.

Of course the documentary maker manipulates, says Rosi (‘Fuocoammare’) herself, and showing the contrast between children playing in serene tranquility and the grim reality of the war is also a dramatization, perhaps a very natural one. That makes the three-year-long ‘Notturno’ a resigned experience, and is that so good? Perhaps, because outsiders in the West can sometimes be more furious about war than may be realistically considered; these people know nothing but resignation, if only out of powerlessness and a survival mentality.

Inability is often seen as weakness and everyday actions are boring, in our psychological reality of fight or flight, clicking or scrolling. Perhaps in the circumstances shown, humans are more comparable to mice, which crawl out of their dens whenever possible to nibble on some remains, and dart in all directions when danger threatens. Peaceful mice, in need of food and safety, far from the ivory tower of the news media. War is cruel pride that tramples aimlessly and moves on.