Hide and Seek
In Victoria Fiore’s documentary, street life in Naples is the significant background to one boy’s life and prospects.
Originally entitled Nascondino and sometimes still referred to by that name, this is a documentary set in Naples which finds Victoria Fiore, its director, making her feature debut. It takes place in the city’s Spanish Quarter, an area noted for the extent of the criminality that thrives there. Indeed, the central concern of this film is to be found in the tragedy of growing up in a community where it can seem inevitable that each generation in a family will experience the same problems. Organised crime being rampant through the controlling hand of the Camorra, the men are likely to be caught up in it and to spend years in jail in consequence, while the women, whether or not they too are sucked into this lifestyle, find themselves unable to prevent young sons from following in the footsteps of their fathers. Hide and Seek has at its centre one such family and in particular the older son, Entoni, who in the course of the film is viewed from the age of nine to that of twelve. His father is in prison – as is the father of his best friend, Dylan – and he lives with his mother, Natalia, his younger brother, Gaetano, his grandmother, Dora, and Natalia's new companion, Francesco.
When we first meet him Entoni is already playing around with other street kids and getting into trouble. His behaviour will cause the authorities to have him put in a children's home from which he will repeatedly run away and later on he is sentenced to twenty days in a juvenile prison. He may keep returning home but it seems that nothing can stop this downward spiral. His is a typical case and there are several references in the film to fresh state interventions to take away children living in families linked to organised crime. Fiore’s film is often critical of the authorities (Entoni’s experiences in the children's home and in jail do nothing to help his situation or his outlook). However, regardless of the concerns expressed by Entoni's grandmother, whose own husband had died in prison at the age of 23, there is little sense that Entoni's destiny would be any different if he had been allowed to stay at home. There is admittedly a strong sense of the contribution that stems from living in poverty (seemingly the crimes of Entoni's father included stealing for his children), but Hide and Seek simply portrays things as they are.
This material could have yielded a film that is powerful and moving and for some Fiore may indeed have achieved just that. But, if some critics often seem to disapprove of documentaries made traditionally and using unobtrusive techniques, I veer the other way regretting elements that limit their sense of authenticity. Here the situation of the family rings painfully true, but Fiore's approach is to direct the film as though it were a work of fiction. By that I mean that camera angles, close-ups and the like frequently appear identical to what you might see in a film with actors and that makes much of Hide and Seek feel set up. An early incident about an attempt to be paid for returning a phone that has been lost suggests a dramatisation and later on there is one sequence in which Entoni describes a dream and Fiore actually opts to create images that illustrate it. On one occasion, the camera seems to be on the spot to witness Entoni escaping from the children's home and it immediately looks like an unacknowledged re-creation.
But, even away from these instances, the film often seems contrived and it is not helped in that respect by snatches of song superimposed at intervals on the soundtrack. One finds too that, despite some sequences incorporating spoken words, most of the comments made by members of the family (the grandmother and Entoni himself in particular) take the form of voice-overs accompanying footage that only partially fits. Some may welcome this as a relief from talking heads, but for me Fiore’s chosen approach instead of drawing me in keeps me at a distance. Despite the potential that this often tragic subject-matter has as material for a documentary feature, I found this film’s impact severely limited by Fiore’s self-conscious techniques. But those who see things differently will be much better placed to applaud this well-intentioned film.
Original title: Nascondino.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Entoni, Dora, Natalia, Gaetano, Dylan and Francesco.
Dir Victoria Fiore, Pro Aleksandra Bilic and Jennifer Corcoran, Ph Alfredo de Juan, Ed Adelina Bichis, Music CJ Mirra.
My Accomplice/Bronx Film-Doc House.
85 mins. UK/Italy. 2021. UK Rel: 13 January 2023. No Cert.
