Walking on the school’s hallway, Simone looks introverted and upset treading cautiously. When a couple of older boys show up behind him grabbing him and pushing him into the toilet, it all becomes clear: he is about to be bullied.
Marco di Gerlando and Ludovica Gibelli’s film ‘Rincoman‘ emerges as a very careful sensitive insight on the cases of bullied children in schools. The process arises not only the question about the gravity of the psychological alienation this kind of an issue provokes to those who endure it but also raises a big question concerning the tolerant and passive attitude all the others sharing the same environment have towards the situation of these aggressed children.
The film realises a very proficient overview of the theme it tackles, conveying the role of technology in this matter such as the use of YouTube. The effects on the social and the moral surfacing from this are frightening. Simone, called Rincoman, is being publicly humiliated and his inner emotional world is shook. The scene with the professor witnessing the results of the boy having been bullied but doing nothing about it and rather making it sound like it’s Simone’s responsibility to take care of his decency is shocking to say the least and denotes a great amount of indifference and professional convenience.
‘Rincoman’ manages to x-ray the environment society creates in schools where society is not an ‘outsider’, an external abstract phenomenon menacing the human community but it is the community itself and each of us are a part of it. By tolerating the excessive behaviours applied on those weaker among us we tolerate aggression.
In Marco di Gerlando and Ludovica Gibelli’s vision, Simone’s character is nevertheless a strong personality. He doesn’t give in easily and even though his extreme final gesture is rather fit to a psychically unstable person or child, by eliminating its fatal feature, the boy actually shows a lot of discernment reflecting the acute need to resort to extreme measures in order to stand for his own dignity. Cinematographically, ‘Rincoman’ feels confidently handled. Of a nevertheless artistic taste, the film offers a much enjoyable entertaining filmic experience.
TMFF RATING:
