Article by Carlotta Profico
Translation by Silvia Matera
After committing a robbery, a bandit discovers he has extraordinary powers that will lead him to choose whether to save himself or others. In an era seemingly dominated by selfishness, Nero, the directorial debut of well-known actor Giovanni Esposito, focuses on sacrifice and caring for others.
Nero, a familiar story, is a portrait of the Italian suburbs, in which social realism is combined with an apparent dose of mysticism. However, Giovanni Esposito avoids the stereotypical depiction of the suburbs to which we got so used to, choosing instead to limit petty crime to a marginal dimension that is purely functional to narrative developments.
Nero (Giovanni Esposito) survives by committing small crimes in order to take care of his sister Imma (Susy Del Giudice), who suffer from mental health issues. During a robbery, the protagonist seriously injures a gas station attendant, who wakes up inexplicably unharmed. While the miracle is initially attributed to “Our Lady of Detergents”, the statue that stands tall in the supermarket aisles, Nero soon realizes that he has healing powers. However, his healing abilities come at a high cost: the protagonist gradually loses his five senses every time he uses his powers.
The sibling relationship – the emotional center of the whole film – is constantly tested, as Imma, in that social context, seems like an alien, viewed as a sideshow spectacle by both the district and the doctors. The suffocating situation and the closed-mindedness of those living in the apartment complex lead Nero to move elsewhere with his sister. In this circular storytelling, the figure of Imma marks the time of the narrative, as well as the life and death of the protagonist who is called to a final, extreme miracle. At the peak of narrative tension, Nero finds himself having to rescue Imma on the verge of death, aware that restoring her life will come at the cost of losing his sight: a gesture of total unconditional love, of complete trust that the protagonist makes by choosing to rely on his sister.
Right from the title, Nero suggests a worldview which turns out to be a dichotomy. While the protagonist does not seem to have high hopes, and the dark, monochromatic colors he wears – as well as the walls of the room where he sleeps – suggest this hopeless worldview, Imma, despite her communication difficulties, shows through her colorful drawings all the vitality she has within. The contrast of the two characters is chromatically and visually rendered by Daniele Ciprì’s cinematography, while Giordano Corapi’s evocative music choices emphasize the emotional dimension of the film, especially in the final narrative turning point.