“A group of hunters told us the story of Mario di Marcella, a hermit with a tragic past who lived in a cave of volcanic origin near the town of Vejano. Everybody called him “il solengo”, which is the name for the wild male boar that’s cut off from the rest of the pack. We were immediately intrigued by this man who led a primitive life in the woods for almost his entire life,” say documentary makers Alessio Rigo de Righi and Mateo Zoppis about the insightful Il Solengo, one of the true highlights of the Week of Italian Cinema, also to be commercially released tomorrow.
Award-winning Il Solengo may well be about Mario di Marcella, but only on a nominal sense. Or let’s say it’s not solely or mainly about him. Even considering how intriguing this obscure figure is and how mysterious his life must have been, it’s equally intriguing to see if a portrayal of such a person can actually be drawn by those who claim they know more than a thing or two about him.
We’re talking about a small group of elders, manual labourers of the Pratolungo community who share their first-hand, colourful and often contradictory anecdotes about an elusive man with a vague identity. Mario di Marcella, “il solengo”, is in fact an ever-present absence that perfectly articulates the deceptively simple narrative, a figure for others to talk about, and, in so doing, to reveal how futile it is to try to assert who someone is.
They say Mario had a strange way with people. And that you never knew how he’d react when greeted. He’d only speak to kick people out of his land. He was a good swimmer, too. No one knew for a fact why he lived secluded. He was definitely extravagant, but he wasn’t crazy. Yet some say he was crazy. He was violent. Others say he wasn’t violent unless you provoked him. He was rough with people who were afraid of him. And he had a savage look, like when you run into a boar and he looks at you.
And then there’s his dreadful past. People say his mum killed her husband in his sleep because he would always hit her and she just couldn’t take it any longer. She was pregnant at the time, but nonetheless was sent to jail. So Mario was born in prison and lived there until the age of seven or eight. Others claim he’d already been born by the time his mum killed his dad. And some others say it was his mum’s father who killed Mario’s dad. Some say he wasn’t actually his real dad. Go figure.
Il Solengo is about the villagers themselves too — their ways of life, their beliefs and how they relate to one another. Not that they explicitly say that much about themselves, but who they are is implied in how they say what they say about others. Which is not only conveyed via the spoken word, because thanks to the pristine, moody cinematography by Simone D’Arcangelo, you get more than a glimpse of rustic Italian life. Let alone the uncanny sense of isolation it conveys when it depicts the area where Mario a.k.a. “il solengo” has spent most of his life.
A few minutes before the film ends, a presence comes forward, if only partially. Let’s keep the intrigue and not elaborate on it. Suffice it to say that it brilliantly resignifies some things you already knew even as it provides the film’s most touching moment.
Production notes
Il Solengo (Italy, 2015). Directed by Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis. Cinematography: Simone D’Arcangelo. Editing: Andrés Pepe Estrada, Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zopis. Music : Vittorio Giampietro. Running time: 68 minutes.
