The Mouth Of The Wolf

For an award winning doc about Genoa and its ageing underclass, this is oddly baffling. Using a mixture of archive footage of beach frolics and contemporary scenes of street life, director Pietro Marcello doesn’t seem to know where he’s going, or what he wants. The narrative voice over only adds another layer of poetic abstraction.

Into this portrait of homeless cave dwellers and mature prostitutes strides an ex-con, called Enzo. He has a thick ‘tache, black hair and a chiselled face. He could have been Jack Palance’s brother. Now, you think, we’re getting somewhere. This man has presence.

Enzo’s story – banged up for most of his life for petty gangster stuff – has nothing to do with Genoa, other than the fact that he lives there with Mary, his partner for 20 years. Mary is interesting, too. She’s a transsexual. They met in prison in the days when she/he was a slave to heroin and Enzo had a body builder’s figure.

They sit side by side, facing the camera, with three dogs at their feet. Mary talks of their love affair and how Enzo defended her/him in jail. Enzo interrupts occasionally with suitably macho asides.

Where is the city? Where are the ships? Does a tough guy and his man girl make up for the confusion? Very art house.