These days, it’s hard to be nuanced. The United States is profoundly polarized, and we’re constantly encouraged to to self-sort, to live, work, and socialize with other like minded people. Why? It’s easier. We say we want unity, but that really means we just want people to think and agree with our positions. It’s still the early days of 2024, but we are in an election year, which means the polarization will only get worse.

So how are you supposed to get past polarization? First, I think you don’t automatically assume the worst motives of others. It’s true there are people out there with motives that are so transparently malevolent that Doctor Doom would tell them to simmer down. But the reality is that most people mean well. They just make decisions based on fear, gullibility, or they simply make mistakes. A decision that, from a distance, looks to be evil, is often one made through either incompetence or simply made in a broken system.

If, like me, you live in the United States, you know a thing or two about living in a broken system. Are there ways to fix this system? Absolutely. Can it be done while vilifying opposing viewpoints? Not so much, and that’s one of the interesting aspects about The Legionnaire, a thoughtful drama from Italy that digs into a polarized city and the real people caught in the middle.

We’re introduced to Daniel (Germano Gentile). He’s a police officer and his nickname in the squad is Hot Choc. He’s the only Black man on Rome’s riot squad, and I imagine more than a few people in the department think of him as one of the “good ones.” Yet he’s not constantly bombarded with racism. The men on the riot squad, in the ball-busting way that so many men do, seem to genuinely love him and respect him.

We’re also introduced to Patrick (Maurizio Bousso). He’s Daniel’s brother, and both of them are second generation Italians. They grew up in a condemned building in one of Rome’s less affluent neighborhoods. For years, Patrick has been a community leader, a voice for the few hundred people squatting in the building with nowhere else to go. Patrick certainly thinks the building is home, mostly because his partner, young son, and mother live there.

Rome feels like a powder keg, and, as a result, the riot squad must be ready. The men engage in combat drills, where an instructor bombards them with racist/homophobic/just plain mean insults. They’re meant to learn how to let invective roll off them. For the most part, Daniel is good at it. He’s got a decent apartment in a decent neighborhood, he’s in a healthy marriage and his wife is pregnant. Life is good for him.

That is, life is good for Daniel until it isn’t. The city of Rome has lost patience with the squatters. Orders come down to the riot squad that a mass eviction will take place. Some of the squatters are given temporary housing for a year to go to. After that? That’s their tough luck. As for the rest? Out on the streets. That’s their tough luck. As the riot squad prepares, Daniel and Patrick must grapple with forces far out of their control.

The making of The Legionnaire is amazing to me. Director Hleb Papou filmed the scenes of the block of flats at a real building that’s actually been occupied for many years. Many of the supporting and background actors are residents, and it seems that Papou was given virtually unlimited access.* Along similar lines, Papou worked closely with Roman police, many of whom were extras. The result is a movie that feels profoundly real, one that cleverly merges drama, documentary filmmaking, and small brushstrokes of action movies like The Raid. This is Papou’s first feature and, for the most part, it’s made with confidence and skill. The end fizzles a bit, and doesn’t hit quite as hard as it probably should. 

Perhaps the thing that most impressed me is the screenplay by Papou, Giusseppe Brigante, and Emanuele Mochi. It’s true that their female characters are woefully underdeveloped, and the script often feels as if it’s doing too much too fast. But these writers go out of their way to show the competing perspectives. We see overtly racist cops jostling with direct action occupiers. They’re in conflict with police who genuinely want to help their communities, residents who want to work within the system, and bureaucrats who desperately want to help and have their hands tied. A lesser film would show us heroes and villains. Instead, we’re seeing the behavior of flawed people. They’re mostly trying to do the right thing, while the definition of the right thing keeps shifting. 

This being a first feature, the performance quality is all over the map. The good news is that the central roles are played with intelligence and nuance. I liked Marco Falaguasta as Eagle, the supervisor of the riot squad. While he keeps questionable company with white supremacist cops, we see him push back and show real affection for Daniel. That doesn’t make him a good person, but it does make for a thoughtful performance. Maurizio Bousso does strong work as Patrick. He genuinely thinks there’s a chance to save the building and the people who live there, and he genuinely thinks his community is being persecuted. But watch the scene where he tells his son about Uncle Daniel, about how he’s working “undercover” to make the police force as moral as he is. Does Patrick believe that? Mostly, but more so he wants it to be true. Germano Gentile is compelling as Daniel. While he’s not playing the flashiest role, he’s the quiet center of the film, a man who’s solid as a rock until he isn’t.

It’s hard to be nuanced, and movies are no exception. I value The Legionnaire, as it works hard to show people with different perspectives responding to an impossible situation. It’s a well made movie that flirts with greatness. In the future, I could easily see Hleb Papou becoming one of the greats. That’s not a nuanced opinion, but I stand by it.

 

*For example, there’s a sequence where the power to the building has been shut off. A Polish priest arrives and, in an act of resistance, turns the power back on. That’s a thing that really happened and in the moment, Papou was ready. Filmmakers, take note.



Tim Brennan
Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.  
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