Sacro GRA **** (2013, dir Gianfranco Rosi) – Movie Review

Film-maker Gianfranco Rosi tells a tale, or rather paints a portrait, of his own country of Italy, filming for over two years in a minivan on Rome’s giant ring road, the GRA, to reveal the invisible worlds and strange denizens of this area of constant turmoil.

It had the huge honour of winning the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 2013, a rare honour indeed for a documentary, actually a unique honour. But then this is no ordinary documentary, it’s more of an impressionistic art work.

Rosi darts back and forth, putting weird and wonderful, but still elusive characters in his lens. They memorably include an ambulance worker, a bloke testing out the palm trees and, of course, Fellini-esque prostitutes. The film seems to have no logic or meaning, remaining intriguingly mysterious and enigmatic. You just sit back, let it all wash over you, and enjoy. Some of it is much more interesting than others, but the whole manages somehow to be more than just the sum of its parts. And that’s a clever trick to pull off.

It could easily have been one of those bum-numbing epic documentaries, but it’s all over in an entertaining and eye-catching 95 minutes. It’s an impressive curate’s egg of an object. Some of the shots and people and conversations in it are mundane enough but others are just as magical.

It is the first documentary feature film ever to win the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and, in case you think there’s prejudice here in favour of a local work, it is the first Italian film to win the prize since 1998. The title is a play on words with the road’s abbreviated title, GRA, and the Italian for Holy Grail.

The GRA or Grande Raccordo Anulare (literally Great Ring Junction) is one of the most important roads in Rome.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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