If there was a need for a good proof that English social dramas are inspired by Italian neorealism, it is provided by 'The Bike Thief', made in 2020, the director's debut film by Matt Chambers. The title is a direct and casual reference to Vittorio De Sica's 1948 film, 'Ladri di biciclette'. His film is a homage and a transposition in time of the classic film of Italian neorealism, but not a pastiche. The script, also written by Matt Chambers, reuses some of the main ideas, situations and lines of action in Sica's film, transplanting the action in that part of contemporary London that most Englishmen and tourists ignore - the world of immigrants trying to find their place and build an identity in a world that offers them very few points of material or moral support. It is a film made with simplicity and sincerity, whose cinematic and acting qualities manage to make it interesting for film buffs who are interested in human and social dramas.
Viewers never know the name of the main hero. In fact, he spends much of his film with his face camouflaged by a motorcyclist's helmet. He is a Romanian immigrant and works at night delivering pizza to the customers of the restaurant run by Yusuf. The job is at the limit of legality, the moped used for deliveries is not insured. The boss also rents him the apartment where he lives with his wife - who works as a housekeeper - and his two children, a teenage girl who is a student, and a boy a few months old. His social integration is feeble. He speaks English only at a basic level and does not communicate much with his colleagues, immigrants from other continents. The family works hard and lives on the edge. When the moped entrusted to him by the boss is stolen - maybe bad luck, maybe the revenge of his colleagues - his whole existence is ruined. He is in danger of losing everything - his job, his housing, the means to support his family. The police do not help him because the moped was not insured and they seem more interested in checking whether he is not an illegal immigrant. We don't know much about this man, but he seems like a decent and honest person. However, the situation in which he finds himself cannot be resolved by honest means. As in the films of De Sica and of other Italian masters, the character is motivated by noble moral considerations, before all by devotion to his family, but life and the social conditions around put him in extreme situations.
The lead role is excellently played by Alec Secareanu. We can suspect that his lack of communication is not necessarily a character trait, and behind his silence there seems to be an untold life story. Anamaria Marinca is Elena, his wife, and I would have liked her role to be more consistent. Alexia Maria Proca debuts exceptionally in the role of the teenage daughter. The family scenes are interpreted with discretion and sensitivity. From the Romanian perspective, the film says something about the confrontation of many immigrants with the Western world that is far from welcoming them with open arms, and about the conflict of moral values between home education and the realities of the society in which they landed. However, director and screenwriter Matt Chambers did not insist on these issues, and from the point of view of a 'neutral' spectator, the film could be about immigrants from any other part of the world. The image signed by Nanu Segal adds quality to the film, bringing to the screen a London of the night, cold and dark, camouflaging its violence and contradictions. The conflict seems to be evolving slowly, but it is a gradation of slipping into the dark. Matt Chambers wrote and made a discreet film, but which conveys a significant message and has a remarkable emotional impact. Compared to the illustrious original that inspired him, 'The Bike Thief' does not come out very disadvantaged.
