‘Balentes’ review: Enigmatic Sardinian animation boasts striking visuals but thin story

Dir/scr: Giovanni Columbu. Italy/Germany. 2024. 69mins

A story of innocence and idealism colliding with the brutality of warfare, Giovanni Columbu’s hanging Sardinian dialect animation Balentes relies on a narrative instructed to him by his grandmother. The 12 months is 1940. Two boys, Michele and Ventura – brothers in all however blood – be taught that native horses have been bought to the military and face virtually sure demise on the battlefield within the coming warfare. They determine to launch the animals however are betrayed to the authorities, with tragic penalties. The movie’s distinctive visible model and creative use of assorted animation methods goes some method to bolstering a somewhat skinny story.

A Sardinian story to its core

That is the primary enterprise into animation for veteran Sardinian director Columbu, whose earlier movies embody The King (2013), a re-telling of the fervour of Jesus Christ set amongst Sardinian Mountains, which gained the Signis prize at Buenos Aires Worldwide Movie Competition. Experimental in its strategy, Balentes feels just a little overstretched, even at its temporary operating time. It’s a undertaking which may have labored extra efficiently as a brief movie or, given its visible influence and immersive sound design, as a gallery video set up work. It screens at DOK Leipzig following slots on the Rome Movie Competition and Rotterdam, and has been shortlisted for a European Movie Award for finest animation.

Utilizing an interesting mix of rotoscoping and hand painted animation, the story of Michele and Ventura’s misguided journey unfolds in such an abstracted method that very often it’s not instantly clear what the few sparse monochrome brushstrokes on the display symbolize. Captured in black, white and gray which sometimes warms into sepia tones, it may be somewhat highly effective: at one level, just a few darkish smudges take to the air and morph right into a cloud of flitting butterflies. And the wonder and vitality of the horses on the centre of the story is rendered with elegant economic system, just a few deft brushstrokes capturing the toss of mane and the animals’ highly effective musculature.

There are different hanging moments: a beautiful vast shot of the boys constructing a hearth at night time whereas owls look down from the overhanging branches is visually beautiful, and beneficial properties an added magic from the music selections: excerpts from Wolfgang Zeller’s rating for Dreyer’s Vampyr are used all through the movie to spine-tingling impact. 

However there are limitations to the sparse animated strategy, most notably the dearth of emotive expressiveness of the human figures. Michele and Ventura, like all of the characters, are barely given recognisable faces. With simply darkish patches for eyes and a vaguely oval visage, we’re not given a lot with which to narrate within the characters. Dialogue, in Sardinian, is sparsely used. 

That is, like all of Columbu’s work, a Sardinian story to its core. The title comes from a Sardinian phrase that loosely interprets as bravery, braveness or a way of honour. ’Balentia’ is a time period which was utilized by the shepherds of the island, who claimed it as a part of an inherited and historical code of honour. Within the minds of the 2 younger boys, the rescue of the horses from their destiny is a matter of honour. 

The concept of stealing the animals, nevertheless, got here from one other particular person, a shady character who speaks in a hoarse whisper. His identify is Melchior, and he’s described in one of many movie’s onscreen titles as “evil-minded”. Melchior feels aggrieved when the boys determine to launch the horses with out him, and pays them again by reporting them to the authorities. Anticipating brigands somewhat than kids, the armed guards fatally open fireplace. However Sardinia is a spot that takes revenge critically: Melchior’s betrayal finally seals his personal destiny.