Post-apocalyptic movies will always be popular because we are perpetually mid-apocalypse. Since at least the dawn of mass media (and likely stretching back to time immemorial), mankind has seemingly always been standing one one brink or another, whether via disease, threat of nuclear war, the general breakdown of society, or (refreshes Google News) all of the above. But as depressing as the prospect of armageddon is, the post-apocalyptic genre is, in its own strange way, a form of escapism. From the comic-bookish parodies of society found in Mad Max and Escape from New York to the neo-settler prepper fantasies of The Walking Dead and the Quiet Place films, the appeal of much of the genre’s most popular work is in imagining an alternative. If we’re about to destroy ourselves anyway, who’s to say any of this would be any less pleasant?
This seems to be roughly the point of view of the young protagonists of Mondocane, the inventive new post-apocalyptic epic from Italian director Alessandro Celli. Pietro (Dennis Protopata) is an orphan living in a wasteland that was once the coast of Italy, working for a crazy old fisherman and diving for treasure with his best friend, Cristian (Giuliano Soprano). Pietro sees a future, however bleak, in a local gang called the Ants, led by the charismatic, mohawked-and-mustachioed Hothead (Alessandro Borghi). Hothead takes a shine to Pietro after he successfully completes his initiation by torching a local pet shop called Mondocane (which means “Dogworld,” but is of course also the title of another infamous Italian film). The leader only begrudgingly accepts Cristian, however, who suffers from seizures. Renamed Mondocane and Pisciasotto (“Pisspants”), the two boys take to gang life, training under Hothead and occasionally escaping to the seemingly uncontaminated resort town of New Taranto. But their relationship begins to build friction when the two boys begin to outpace each other in the gang’s rankings, and Pietro is further conflicted when he befriends a New Taranto orphan (Ludovica Nasti) who happens to have worked at the pet shop he destroyed. Will their friendship survive– and will they?
The post-apocalypse is a popular idiom for low-budget filmmakers because it’s an easy world to recreate on a shoestring: drive a few beefy guys out to a rock quarry, give them some dirtbikes and spiked shoulder pads, and you’re halfway to Thunderdome. The trick, of course, is making a low-budget apocalypse movie that doesn’t look like a low-budget apocalypse movie– which is where Mondocane shines. Despite being set in a grimy underworld of gutted basements and garbage-filled piers, Mondocane is an absolutely gorgeous film. Cinematographer Giuseppe Maio infuses the proceedings with a golden hue pitched somewhere between “magic hour” and “choking smog.” The interiors and nighttime action scenes (one of which, it must be noted, does indeed take place in a rock quarry), meanwhile, are legible and never murky. I can’t imagine Mondocane was shot on a terribly high budget, but it honestly looks better than just about any American genre epic to crack the top ten over the past few years.
Unfortunately, the screenplay seems to pack in just a couple too many ideas to explore any of them fully. I don’t mind that we never learn what exactly made this world so uninhabitable– at this point, “the apocalypse” is as self-explanatory a setting as “the wild west”– but I did find myself wishing I knew more about the resort town of New Taranta, which opens the door to a potentially biting class satire only hinted at in the finished film. Though the heart of the story hinges on the relationship between Pietro and Cristian, both boys are so affectless that they’re difficult to invest in; we never learn exactly what potential the Ants see in Pietro, and it’s tough to see what Pietro sees in Cristian (to say nothing of Pietro’s relationship with Sabrina, or Sabrina’s relationship with a friendly policewoman played by Barbara Ronchi). In trying to do too much, it ultimately doesn’t do quite enough.
But I’m willing to overlook a lot of shortcomings in the name of originality and craftsmanship, and Mondocane has both in spades. The performances are strong– particularly Borghi, who plays Hothead as the kind of guy who makes you strive his praise even as you’re aware he may murder you at a moment’s notice– and, crucially, they commit. This world is, fundamentally, pulp, filled with leather-clad extras and communal toad-licking parties, but it’s clear that these characters take it deadly seriously. This conviction on the part of the actors, combined with the recognizably modern artifacts within the ruins (an abandoned hospital still bears the sort of bland stock-model posters one might see at Mass General today) gives the impression that we’re seeing an authentic slice of life within this dilapidated nightmare world. At the risk of sounding glib, Mondocane puts the Neo in Italian neo-realism.
Though not a perfect movie, Mondocane is exactly what it should be: an impeccably crafted little genre film with faith in its own concept and a cast strong enough to carry it. Had it been made a few decades earlier, it would be that hidden gem sitting inconspicuously in the rental racks, waiting to pleasantly surprise you the day you decide to take a chance on it– and then again when you re-rent it to show your friends. The post-apocalyptic thriller– particularly the low-budget, Italian-made post-apocalyptic thriller– is not a genre widely known for its nuance or deeply-felt emotion, but Mondocane succeeds in telling its story earnestly and with style. We may still be in the thick of this particular apocalypse, but until we reach the “post” you could do worse than this slick little thriller.
Mondocane
2021
dir. Alessando Celli
110 min.
Screens 6/10-6/14 @ Brattle Theatre