Diaz: Un crime d'état

A KVIFF viewing, an Italian film from director Daniele Vicari, the film undertakes a sticky task to recount the fierce police assault on the so-called black-bloc group (mostly foreigners, students, journalists) after some protesters' affray in the final days of 2001 G8 Summit in Genova.

The film's chief characteristic is its visual language, shockingly bold and deadly savage, which inevitably will be shunned by the demography of those are intolerable of graphic violence. One must admit, we are now in the era where news generally fade away in a 48-hour rotation, there are myriads of mostly recent "unfortunate incidents" have been erased from our mind, so as to this film takes a quite extreme measurement to remind us such horrifying and atrocious events did actually exist only a decade ago in a developed western country, with government authorities holding the reins.

The very first scene, is a backward slow-motion of a protester slinging an empty bottle toward the police vehicles which are deliberately passing by the area, in order to procure a professed pretext to carry out the subsequent battery, so allegedly the entire action is ruthlessly plotted to set an example and to hector the masses. Two-thumbs up to the valor of the film, which fearlessly exposes the dark side of the government and the powerlessness of individual. But when the said slow-motion has been exploited multiple times, a dwindling impact inexorably occurs each time it recurs.

Due to the fact the approach of depicting this scandalizing event in a multi-reflective manner, it entails a wide range of characters, local volunteers, various foreigners (among those are many innocent victims and the real peace-breakers who ironically evade the brute force), policemen who execute the operation, The numerous cast diffuses one's concentration while most roles are underwritten and loosely connected or fragmented, nevertheless Jennifer Ulrich gives a gutsy impression as a victim traumatized both outside and inside, Claudio Santamaria, also stands out among the bulk of cast, as the righteous Italian policeman who is more of a reluctant witness than a government's henchman or heavy.

Anyway, with excellent editing, sound effects and a steady camera eye, the film is a quite mature work, on which one definitely could ruminate and alert oneself to be more conscious of the tragic happenings, they are just around us, be wise and be careful.

Seriously. I walked out of it somewhat disorientated and still shaken. I saw 'Diaz - Don't clean up this Blood' about a month ago at its Berlinale Screening and it still haunts me. I could tell that most of the audience shared my feelings and some even left the cinema, because they couldn't bear what they were seeing. Nevertheless the applause was extraordinary.

We have all seen our fair share of violence and cruelty in the movies. But this is a completely different pair of shoes. The non-fictional background of the film plot concerns me personally, both as a human being and as an European citizen. It's hard to imagine this happened ten years ago in a Western European country and yet it DID happen and it could - and probably will - happen again. That's why it is so important to deal with the topic of police violence instead of ignoring it or playing it down. The film crew and cast did a great job capturing the horror of this disastrous event. And that's what 'Diaz' mainly seems to be about: re-creating and contextualizing the occurred violations of human rights in 2001 in Italy as authentic and accurate as it can be done in a feature film.

It obviously wants you to be shocked, but with good reasons: it describes shocking incidents, which should not be trivialized. If you do some research, you'll find out that the film indeed does not exaggerate anything. But it does NOT inform you about the political background, you have to inform yourself. And I think you will, after you've seen it.

'Diaz' is not entirely flawless, but it could be a film of great significance, provided that it motivates the audience to read up on the subject.

If you're interested in a less gripping, but much more informative approach on the matter, check out the documentary "The Summit" (2012).

Let's make something perfectly clear before you watch this movie. If you didn't like the police before this movie, you won't for sure not like the police afterwards. The police is NOT your friend. They are the puppets of the people in power, and those people are corrupt to the bone. That's noting new, it's like that in almost every country. But to see that this happened in a "civilized" country like Italy is just repulsive and makes me sick to the stomach. Police brutality, it's not new, and it won't stop because of this movie. The proof, while I write this, is the current manifestations of the "Yellow Jackets" in France where we witness systematic daily police brutality, shooting flashballs in peoples faces, beating up everybody that stands in their way. The media trying to cover up all this police brutality are all on the payroll of the government. The independent media is the only one you can trust. And that's exactly what they show in this movie, extreme police violence and independent journalists trying to do their jobs. The movie is very hard to watch, and that's only if you have some feelings left when you witness injustice. Those right wing pigs should all be in prison, but the truth is that none of them even lost their job. Just like twenty years later where a Parisian cop gets the medal of honor after beating up innocents while on the other hand a citizen is in prison for beating up one of those robocops with his bare fists. A must watch if you want to try to understand how the police works if you're still living in a bubble on your cloud.

Sometimes you see a movie about something was really happened. And you were there, at that time. And you don't want to forget. You want nobody will forget. I think this movie is well done, maybe not a real artistic masterpiece, but I don't think this was the target for the director. The real target was just to document real fact as they happened. And if facts were not really that way the director and the producer would surely have problems with law. No problems happened. Sadly, I would prefer to know that this film was fictional and the policemen did their job in the right and humane way. I would really like "Diaz" was just a fiction. But it is not. By the way, I'm from Genova and I was there at the time. Not inside Diaz school, fortunately.

What happened on that day and is portrayed in the movie is nothing new.

All of us have seen what happened in Abu Ghraib, concentration camps, even on socker matches or concerns... we all know that people behave like swine when they are given the opportunity and even worse, when they are in "authority" (in any sense).

I have tried to read a book by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, that explains the topic of violence brought in common people if they are given an order or authority to do so... couldn't, it didn't feel realistic enough to follow. I saw the Experiment, based on his work and didn't find it realistic again - it felt like fiction.

Than this movie came. I seriously would make it an obligatory part of police and soldier training. To show them what they can become if they don't watch themselves... I would show it on psychology lessons to make the students understand that the beast in us is very much alive. Its a movie that partly kills the "humans are nice" mindset, but sometimes it needs to be done - the risks of forgetting are too high.

When I left the cinema I was thinking if there is anything that can be done from MY side to prevent such things from happening... All i came to was to be good - to spread the feeling of connection with strangers, to try and make any matter personal. This movie made me consider joining the police just to see and try to not allow anything like this to happen. Thank you for this, I don't know what will be my role, but movies like this make me realize, that living for my own self is just not enough (one day I might be sorry for doing so.. if I find myself on the wrong end of the baton).