“Come Dio Comanda” or ‘God’s Will’ is a film by Italian filmmaker Gabriele Salvatores, with Elio Germano, Filippo Timi, Fabio De Luigi, Angelica Leo and Alvaro Caleca.
The film is based on the book by Niccolò Ammaniti who is famous for “Io non ho paura”, or ‘I’m not scared’, an Ammaniti book that became a film adapted by the same Salvatores.
“God’s Will” is about a father and son who are so linked in a tragic and violent love that they challenge the world together.
The father, Rino, is an unemployed Nazi-fascist, with swastikas decorating the house.
His son, Cristiano, is 14 years old, and to be brought up in this world that has forgotten the love for patriotism.
Cristiano venerates his father, considering the latter a spiritual guide, a light, a god to be obeyed when god commands.
Five years after “Io non ho paura”, Salvatores and Ammaniti are working together again on this complicated film of the celebrated novel.
In a cold, desolate and alienating northern Italian province, Italian director Salvatores recreates Ammaniti’s novel, concentrating on the incredible relationship of the father and son, so politically incorrect and wrong that it is difficult to sympathise with.
The 500 pages of Ammaniti’s “Come Dio commanda” were difficult to adapt to the cinema and so Salvatores has concentrated on the heart of the story, the love between Rino, the father, and Cristiano, the son.
Rino is violent, fascist and constantly oscilates between clarity and craziness.
He educates his son in the themes of hate for what is different: foreigners and homosexuals, for example.
He teaches him to fight, to shoot and never to be put upon – he teaches Cristiano how to be respected.
Cristiano listens with the face of one in love with his father, respected, venerated and idolised.
They are alone in the world and they are at war with everyone, with a society that doesn’t understand them.
With them only is the town’s token lunatic, Quattro Formaggi (Four Cheeses), who is derided by everyone apart from Rino, his only friend and protector.
The three make up a family, including the enormous nativity scene Quattro Formaggi keeps in his house, and the video cassettes of porn star Ramona, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.
Salvatores examines each character closely; keeping his camera on his shoulder, he gets inside them, bringing their emotions and thoughts to the screen.
Accompanied by excellent photography and a sound track with a mix of rock and pop (from Mokadelic to Robbie Williams) the film is almost Shakespearean in its three acts.
The second act brings the three characters to a wood, in pouring rain in a scene which will change their lives.
This is a real dark fairytale, with a Red Riding Hood and terrible homicide to complete the picture.
Rino will discover he is fragile and the naive, blind and disillusioned Cristiano will start what every parent fears – he will start to doubt his hero.
Filippo Timi is finally promoted to a protagonist role in this new Italian cinema, with a sense of theatre and such perfection in his execution of the hate felt towards the world.
Alvaro Caleca interprets the son, Cristiano and Elio Germano completes the infantile and grotesque role of the town lunatic.
Salvatores shows he is a director with a talent for directing child actors, with a perfect depiction of the unconditional and irrational love of the son for the father.
Caleca gives an excellent performance with his hope and compassion, love and hate.
This film also recognises today’s terrible Italy, in love with current affairs, the spectacle of brutal homicides and tragic funerals.
Salvatores transforms Ammaniti’s novel into a real scary fairytale, surreal and grotesque such that it disturbs and fascinates.
The more awkward and staged moments in the film are compensated for that incredibly excessive love.
“Come Dio Comanda” is a mix of drama, noir, thriller and a tint of horror that doesn’t seek to portray everything in the book, instead focussing on the more fabled and tragic aspect of the father/son relationship.