Pa-ra-da

When director Marco Pontecorvo, son of the more famous Gillo Pontecorvo, presented this film at numerous festivals (starting with Venice), he revealed that it took nearly seven years to make the movie because of funding issues, but also due to his day job as a cinematographer (his most notable effort is a few episodes of the HBO show Rome). Nevertheless, he refused to give up, much like the protagonist of Pa-ra-da, a moving true story of kindness prevailing against all odds.

The title derives from an organization that takes care of street kids in Romania. Actually, the organization didn't exist during the time-span covered in the film, but the seeds of its genesis can be seen very clearly in the efforts of Miloud (Jalil Lespert), clown of French origin, and his friends. What the young man discovers in Bucarest is a shocking reality: thirteen-year old boys and girls who steal, do drugs, live in the sewers and even have to deal with the occasional abortion or two. It's a grim situation, and Miloud, ever the optimist, vows to do everything in his power to make sure those children can have a better future.

The movie was shot on location, in the same places where the real Miloud had been (Pontecorvo said they literally followed his footsteps), and given the director's inexperience (this is his feature debut), a documentary-style approach was thought to be the ideal solution. It works splendidly, the hand-held cameras and the blatantly unprofessional but intense acting merging in a picture that paints a dramatic but ultimately uplifting portrait of life and its various aspects, both positive and negative. It's a tribute to imagination, freedom and the dream of happiness, all of which are conveyed through an inspired, inspiring film that marks the beginning of what could be a very promising new career for Pontecorvo. As long as it doesn't take him seven years for the next movie too, that is.