Il Futoro - A Rag Tale in Rome

When a couple who emigrated to Italy from Chile several years ago are killed in a tragic car accident, their surviving children Bianca (Manuela Martelli) and Thomas (Luigi Ciardo) must now find their way around Rome all by themselves. With all her effort, Bianca in particular tries to maintain her usual daily routine. So the teenagers stay in their parents' apartment, go to school and meet up with friends. Small jobs should help to secure the necessary financial means for survival without child welfare services. But as Tomás spending more and more time at the gym where he works as a cleaner, the situation changes drastically. Because not only is the boy becoming more and more rebellious towards his older sister. He also simply invites two friends from the gym to temporarily move in with them in the small apartment. The two quickly notice that the siblings are suffering from enormous money problems and so they make them a risky proposal: Bianca should establish a relationship with the blind Maciste (Rutger Hauer), a former B-movie hero, as a prostitute, so that they can get the money that he allegedly stashes in his house. Reluctantly, Bianca agrees to the plan. In fact, she manages to win the sympathy and trust of the aged movie star. But one thing has not been considered in the supposedly foolproof plan: that Bianca might also begin to develop feelings for her victim.

Il Futuro is the adaptation of the rags-to-riches novel, the last work of author Roberto Bolano. Director Alicia Scherson has crafted a very quiet, somewhat plodding drama from the book, but one that still has some staying power. The story centers on a young girl who must grow up far too quickly after the death of her parents. She has to fend for herself and her little brother in a society battered by the global economic crisis, which has all but abandoned them. There's as little time to grieve as there is to just do the things that teenage girls do. A somewhat undercooled direction and the stoic, yet seething acting of lead actress Manuela Martelli build up an underlying mood that seems hopeless in a very real way. In contrast, the house of the blind actor and its aura dominated by the past almost seems like a fantasy world. So it is absolutely understandable why Bianca can let herself go so quickly here, why she is not afraid or disgusted by the much older man, but feels safe with him.

Il Futuro is not a particularly light film. Especially towards the end, the story increasingly loses its clearly discernible structure and culminates in a finale that leaves the viewer a little perplexed. Maybe it's just because of this that the viewer keeps thinking about this movie for a long time even after the credits have rolled. On the other hand, after the many strong moments the movie has to offer, you are left with a somewhat unsatisfying overall impression, which the drama doesn't deserve, if only because of the very good acting performances. Especially the scenes between Manuela Martelli and Rutger Hauer are full of tenderness and emotional depth thanks to the actors, which are enormously rousing despite the somewhat unwieldy production.

So this rags-to-riches story in Rome is a very interesting work, which is also rousing and very moving in places. The character development of Bianca is exciting and convincingly realized. Nevertheless, the dry and unwieldy production makes it almost impossible to access for a wider audience, which is why the film can only be warmly recommended to lovers of Italian arthouse drama!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp