The film itself is like a song with
always repeated verses and an always repeated refrain.
There is a group of adolescents who founded a punk band but never made it further than one song. The film
begins like a comedy. Hidden in this songlike repeated themes and
while the film proceeds, we learn details of each boy´s social life.
The guitarist for example lives with his grandmother, an old woman who is often
confused and who does not talk a single work. His father has
remarried but the boy has almost no contact with him. The drummer´s
father is unemployed and a drinker, a demoralized and very
phlegmatic man. In its best moments Somos Mari Pepa reminds me in
Hou Hsiao Hsien´ s wonderful Feng-kuei lai te jen (The Boys
from Feng-Kuei) , especially in its sensibility in the observation of
adolescents. The film is often very funny, but its humor is very
tricky, because this kids are on the swell to an adult life with very
limited perspectives. It is time to decide to higher educations or
how to find a job.
During a soccer play among kids from
the neighbour hood they encounter an old homeless guy who tells them
about his failed career as a football player. He is almost a pendant
to the young drummer´s father. Behind the facade of easygoing
actions, the seriousness of life is lurking behind every corner of
this quarter. Finally the grandmother of the young guitarist has a
breakdown and will committed to a home for the aged. As the film
works with an episodic structure with often repeated themes, near
the end the film gets a bitter taste.
The aesthetic of this film is
versatile. There are moments which are based on video clips, but then moments
of subtle observations of a monotonous every day life. But the closer
the film comes to its end, the seeming lightness disappears. What
stays with me are are images like the father drinking beer in his
car. one single image which tells a lot about the world revealed in this film. A man who has already given up. There is a strange dynamic
between the noisy easygoing youngsters and the resigned silence of
the adults. Despite its humour, despite this funny and very smutty
text of the boys punk song, Leopo´s film has its moments of an
Ozu-like accuracy in the observation of his characters deeply rooted in this this piece of world the film
is telling about. Like I mentioned, it is one of these tricky films
which seem so light but which are full of moments, sometimes single
images, impressions which stay in my mind.
Rüdiger Tomczak
February 13, Cubix 8, 15.30
February 16, Haus der Kulturen der
Welt, 20.00
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