I was very satisfied with the list of the films of this in year in Love&Anarchy (Rakkauta ja Anarkiaa), the Helsinki international film festival. In this article I will talk about one of the films I was very touched by: Mercenary (Mercenaire), screened at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Initially, I chose this movie because I read it was about Rugby, a sport to me very close. I went to watch the movie on the 17th September, in Korjaamo Cinema, with the Director Sasha Wolff, as a special guest of the evening. However, I was somewhat disappointed not seeing that many people. Sasha, before the screening, introduced the movie ironically with these words "This film is made for people who don't give a s"t about rugby". In fact, the main character is the young boy Soane (Toki Pilioko) who loves to play rugby. He lives in Noumèa, a small village in New Caledonia. Through the exhortation of an Islander Abrahm, he has an offer from him to play in a team in France, with the promise to earn a good salary (the 10% goes to Abraham). However, the family is not agreeing. When he reached the European country, the coach of the team doesn't accept him because he is too skinny. Unfortunately, the father of Soane, before his departure, banished from the family so the protagonist is without a job, without house and without parents. Luckily, thanks to a contact that he had, he got accepted by a minor team and he found a job. From that moment, he starts his new life in Europe. As the director specified, the movie pays less attention to the rugby and the main character is the boy, his relationship with the world and with his traditions. During the interview, the director told us how he chose the actors in the Pacific Islands (Soane comes from France). No one of them was a professional actor. The casting was placed in different moments and different contexts, for instance he met and he hanged out with the indigenous of the island. Sasha spent around 6 months in the New Caledonian to learn their traditions. A film that I absolutely recommend to watch. You will know another culture and reality very far away from our ethics (many players from Pacific Islands are used in France in the rugby world). Personally, I was very touched about how rugby is seen in France. I grew up in Italy, a state where the real sport market is in football. One reason why I like rugby is that I always found a friendly and family atmosphere. In this film, I discovered a new face of this sport, quite dramatic and sad. Gloria De Felice
I wrote this review in my magazine (Also in Italian) : http://www.nur.fi
