Nuovomondo 中文

Director: Emanuele Crialese

Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Ameto, Aurora Quattrocchi

Duration: 120 minutes

One of the good things about serving on a SIGNIS jury is discovering films that are both entertaining and moving and which can be the recipient of awards for promoting human values. Nuovomondo was the final film screened in competition in Venice in 2006. Ninety minutes after seeing it, our jury decided that it was the SIGNIS winner. Our choice was confirmed when the film won other prizes and a Jury prize from the international Jury. Later, Nuovomondo was chosen as Italy’s official nominee for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film.

This background is presented to reinforce the view that Nuovomondo is well worth seeing.

Another reason for seeing the film is its subject. The Nuovo Mondo, the New World – or the Golden Door of the film’s title in English – is that of the United States one hundred years ago. Migrants from all over Europe, from Ireland, Italy, Russia and Eastern Europe, many of them refugees, many economic migrants, made their way to the new world in hopes of a better life.

We now take these migrations for granted and see the benefits that the newcomers brought to their adoptive country, especially in terms of the workforce – even if so many of them were exploited. The point to be made now is that different populations from all parts of the contemporary world are on the move. There are even more refugees. There are more displaced people. There are more economic migrants. The pattern of the past remains, where previous migrants are so settled into their new homes that they begrudge favours to newcomers who want only the same as what they wanted when they arrived.

This is why it can be valuable to watch a film life Nuovomondo so that these patterns are not necessarily repeated, that welcome is offered to newcomers, that opportunities are made available and that discrimination is not to be taken for granted.

Nuovomondo comprises three chapters.

The initial location is Sicily at the beginning of the 20 th century. Life is hard. Peasants are poor. The terrain, though beautiful, is harsh. The film opens with young men racing up a steep mountain with rocks in their mouths as part of the endurance so that they can pray at a shrine for a sign as to what they must do for their future. After much discussion and heart-searching, they apply to sail to America. The film has some marvellous detail of their preparations for the voyage, their buying clothes, the families at the wharves to farewell them.

The second part of the film is the voyage. The re-creation of the boat and life on board, sometimes exciting, at other times harsh with the crowding and the nervousness of people who have no real idea of what lies ahead of them, is so detailed that audiences will feel that they are sharing the voyage. This part introduces Charlotte Gainsbourg as a widow from England trying to find someone who will marry her and enable her to land in America lawfully. She makes friends with the three men from Sicily.

The final section of the film is the arrival in the United States. While they watch the statue of Liberty in New York’s harbour, they land at Ellis Island, the point of entry to America for so many of the migrants. They are herded into quarters, interrogated in a language they barely understand, they are prodded and poked for disease or anything that would disqualify them from entry. Since one of the men is mute, we see the lengths the others go to to help him enter.

The film ends as they arrive at the Golden Doors which will open to their new life.

Interesting, moving, thoughtful – and still relevant today.