A masterpiece of survival

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2018)

A friend of mine, who struggled with overweight issues for most of his life, once said that the only place where he actually managed to lose weight was the concentration camp where he was incarcerated during the 1990s conflict in former Yugoslavia. He fortunately survived, and Roberto Benigni's film isn't far away from that in terms of approach to the subject. it's arguably my favourite war film, due to the unique perspective of the little boy (Giorgio Cantarini) and the gruesome reality that's about to crush him, where his father (Benigni) does his best to prevent him from the horrors of the Holocaust and protect him by turning survival into a game where the boy gets to win a tank if he behaves properly. The viewer is unable to ignore the repercussions of the situation in which the story is unfolding, yet Benigni's direction make the hot potato of the topic at hand much easier to handle. Nicola Piovani's emotional soundtrack hit the right nerve without descending into pathetics. Benigni won two Oscars, which were very well deserved. When he got up to the stage, the great Sophia Loren handed him the award, hugged him and broke down in tears, which is a scene that resonates with me even today. He dedicated the Oscar to "those who gave their lives so that we can say la vita e bella". It' impossible to stay cold to that. Bravo, Benigni!