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Caesar Must Die
| Released |
1 March 2013 |
| Director(s) |
Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani |
Starring
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Cosimo Rega, Salvatore Striano, Giovanni Arcuri, Antonio Frasca, Juan Dario Bonetti, Vincenzo Gallo, Rosario Majorana, Gennaro Solito, Vittorio Parrella |
| Writer(s) |
Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani |
| Producer(s) |
Grazia Volpi |
| Origin |
Italy |
| Running Time |
77 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
TBC |
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Tale of intrigue and woe.
Caesar Must Die occupies hazy artistic ground somewhere between a docudrama and a play within a play. Directed by the famous Taviani brothers the film captures inmates of Rome's high security Rebibbia prison rehearsing and performing Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. At times funny, at others poignant, the inmates are inexorably put through their paces-they completely inhabit the script, egging each other on and firing themselves up for the few weeks that they can be other people and live a different life.
Battle-scarred and toughened the actors are a mixture of drug dealers, mafiosi members and murderers. Yet Caesar Must Die conspicuously avoids dwelling on their offences but rather the inmates are encouraged to channel their experience into Shakespeare's famous tale of murder, betrayal, power and loyalty. They use the barbed wire environs of the dreary prison spaces to rehearse their act, watched by intrigued guards and the baying mob of the rest of the prison population. Much of the film focuses on Salvatore Striano, a former Neapolitan mafia member, as he tries to get to grips with his role as Brutus, confidante of Julius Caesar and main culprit in his assassination. Shakespeare's drama is all too familiar to these prisoners and oftentimes they seem more at ease reading from their scripts than reflecting on their own complicated past.
At times the film tends to drag a little. The dialogue is a little clunky and the double dealing hard to keep up with-those well-versed in Shakespeare will perhaps get more out of this than most. Ultimately though Caesar Must Die is a compelling and sad piece of art. After the play has been performed, the props packed away and the stage swept down the inmates enthusiasm is checked, they are rounded up and locked into their small cells. "Ever since I discovered art", laments one of the prisoners, "this cell has truly become a prison."
- Louisa McElwee |
