European Films

The relationship between a father and his children is complicated by the sudden return of their mother in actor Kim Rossi Stuart’s arresting directing debut Anche libero va bene (Along the Ridge), which premiered at Cannes and is shown here at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Another View section. As in Competition entries Valkoinen Kaupunki (Frozen City) and Sherrybaby, the mother of the family has disappeared and re-enters the family after an extended period of time. For Stefania (Barbora Bobulova, from Ozpetek's masterful Cuore Sacro/Sacred Heart), however, it is not the first time she tries to return and make amends, and it is exactly this fact that drives father Renato (Rossi Stuart himself) and their young swimming champion Tommi (Alessandro Morace, surpassing Rossi Stuart in an amazing performance) up the wall.

Written by eight hands including Rossi Stuart's (who, by the looks of the length of his credit listings probably even cooked for the cast and crew during filming), the film’s portrait of a relationship between a father and son is the most nuanced of the three films mentioned here. Tommi is a bit older than the children in Sherrybaby and Valkoinen Kaupunki and perhaps because of his age Renato confides in him more than one detail about his relationship with Stefania. Most of these things Renato says should probably have been left unsaid to any child, let alone the child of the very woman you are cursing. The interaction between Renato and Tommi as two men who have to deal with the difficult adult woman in the house (there is also Tommi’s sister Viola) are niftily juxtaposed with scenes that show Tommi for the true child that he is: falling in love for the first time, loving a good dare when he is on his own on the Roman rooftops but shying away from danger when with others of his age.

Anche libero va bene probes deeply into the difficulties that are inherent in any parent-child relationship that is also a friendship: when does being a parent and guardian stop and does being a listener or problem-solver (two important characteristics of any friend) for the child begin? Rossi Stuart’s film does not offer an easy answer, but his exploration of the subject -- despite a flagging rhythm in its opening and closing sections -- does prove to be one of the more remarkable directing debuts in recent years.