Tom Medina

2021
Not Rated
1 Std. 40 Min.

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Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuIn the mystical French region of Camargue, Tom Medina turns up, on probation, on the doorstep of big-hearted Ulysses. Tom dreams of becoming a good person. But he's thwarted by the hostility... Alles lesenIn the mystical French region of Camargue, Tom Medina turns up, on probation, on the doorstep of big-hearted Ulysses. Tom dreams of becoming a good person. But he's thwarted by the hostility flung in his general direction, which shows no sign of abating.In the mystical French region of Camargue, Tom Medina turns up, on probation, on the doorstep of big-hearted Ulysses. Tom dreams of becoming a good person. But he's thwarted by the hostility flung in his general direction, which shows no sign of abating.

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6,2/10

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Tom à la ferme.

On the screen, La Camargue is par excellence the French region where the losers wind up : in 1937 ,Jean-Paul Paulin's "les filles du Rhône" displayed love for this wild region ,whereas Yves Allégret's "chien de pique" (1961)featured an easily influenced young lad meeting a former gangster.

Tony Gatlif is par excellence the French director of the outcasts ; many of his works deal with the gypsies life,his best "Korkoro" (2009)depicting the -too often forgotten- genocide of this people in WW2 .

Tom Medina is par excellence the outcast : one has not got a clue about him : where does he come from? (he is on parole from a reformatory ,that's all we know) Snatches , some questions out of nowhere such "have you ever been humiliated Ulysse? "suggest he had a raw deal .It takes the whole movie before one knows a little of his past .But Tom Medina will remain an enigma to the world : the last picture is not really optimistic : both he and Suzanne have a long way to go ,and it's a rocky road : somewhere a place for them?

David Murgia's performance is anything but conventional :at first his overplaying may infuriate, but further acquaintance reveals a tormented soul,whose eyes long for love,affection ,and a place in a world which always elude him ; same for Slimane Dazi : his first appearance introduce a petulant sullen man who cuts Tom down to size : he is on parole, he is on the Mas (Provençal farm ) to work and he must behave himself .

There's a good use of the Provençal language ("langue d'oc" ) with subtitles ; in spite of occasional gaffes ( the girl bawling out her songs ,naturally in English , makes the viewer put his fingers in his ears in the end ), this is a very interesting movie , filmed on location in the wild landscapes of la Camargue ; the bullfight (with an imaginary animal) may put off people like me who do not approve of this kind of show ; but the meeting with Suzanne ,another loser, who sells rosemary in the streets and who longs to find back her little daughter makes up for it; all that Tom does backfires on him : coming to her rescue when she 's attacked by a brute , he's blamed and the would be justice is hard on the weak or on the poor .The scene of the fight is not included , for Gatlif denies any show to his audience .

This is not a very accessible film , but on the feel-good French scene , it really brings something else.

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Gatlif chose David Murgia as Tom Medina, a young man who appears on parole at the door of Ulisses (Slimane Dazi), the man who will try to help him to follow a course in life. He dreams of becoming a good person, but the general hostility thrown at him will make his task difficult: "I like David Murgia a lot and he reminds me a little of what I used to be. Not physically, because I didn't want it to be just an autobiographical story at all. I think that kind of biographical films are a bit of a trap, that trap us [creatively], a little like historical films. David expresses a lot of feelings and is always full of movements and mannerisms. I was a bit like that." Going back to his teenage years, the director remembers when he arrived in France in the 1960s, lost his parents and got involved in petty robberies. "Evidently and after 2 or 3 years of this, the police arrested me and I entered the justice route, in the delinquent centers. That's what changed my life. In one of these centers I met a formidable man, a teacher I greatly respected. I listened to him and respected him. Before that he didn't respect anyone, because society didn't either. Only from that point did I realize what it was like to be a man in society, to have a role in it. It was thanks to this that I found myself in Camargue. In my criminal file, the judge read that he was someone who loved horses. In fact, that's what I said in a huge questionnaire when I was arrested. In that detention center, they read that too and my master put me to work with horses. I started to be very impressed with a 'cowboy' that was there that looked like Charles Bronson (laughs). He had a scar on his face and he was very tough. He was someone I respected a lot. As I was in Camargue, I also respected the region. He loved the whole wild environment, the horses and other animals. The Camargue saved me from the savagery of men. It was there that I found myself and also came face to face with a country that is not France. No, it's not France. This is a free, wild place, but evidently also with rules. France is Paris, the Côte d'azur. This was not this France. Camargue became my imaginary country, where I could be calm."