Ciao Bella DVD

...the world looks, 2007 movie Ciao Bella took me completely by surprise however. I had an image of Sweden that was not dissimilar environmentally to ours, although of course I was aware that from an industrial and residential perspective things looked very different. I was mortified as you can imagine discovering about a third of the way in that what I believed to be a South American country transpired to be Sweden. This very hot looking movie (and ...
...to the charming romantic movie Ciao Bella.

A team of Iranian living Swedes travel to Gothenberg to play in a football championship, the story focuses on Mustafa (Poyan Karimi), one of the Iranian team players who due to an accident on the pitch is substituted into the Italian team. In steps the gorgeous redhead Linnea (Chanelle Lindell) a young woman desperately intrigued by Italians, and fooled into believing that Mustafa is in fact ... more

I thought until recently that I was well educated on how the world looks, 2007 movie Ciao Bella took me completely by surprise however. I had an image of Sweden that was not dissimilar environmentally to ours, although of course I was aware that from an industrial and residential perspective things looked very different. I was mortified as you can imagine discovering about a third of the way in that what I believed to be a South American country transpired to be Sweden. This very hot looking movie (and I mean temperature hot), blew all my illusions of Sweden out of the water, having recently seen 70's movie They Call Her One Eye; I found the two so very different in their extremes.

Ever one to sidetrack, let me get back to the charming romantic movie Ciao Bella.

A team of Iranian living Swedes travel to Gothenberg to play in a football championship, the story focuses on Mustafa (Poyan Karimi), one of the Iranian team players who due to an accident on the pitch is substituted into the Italian team. In steps the gorgeous redhead Linnea (Chanelle Lindell) a young woman desperately intrigued by Italians, and fooled into believing that Mustafa is in fact Italian Massimo. With a broken family history having been deserted by her mother at an early age Linnea begins a relationship with whom she believes to be Massimo; the big issue she requires from the relationship is honesty. But with Mustafa pretending to be Italian, and not Iranian (Iranians being frowned upon), and Linnea with her own secret, that she is pregnant it seems honesty might not be as easy as you might think.

Ciao Bella is an incredibly difficult movie to get to see at present (March 2008) its rather muted release as a German film festival sort of knocked the movie into obscurity simply because of bigger movies at the same festival. So from the offset I need to state seeing this movie may not be an easy task, I was sent a promotional DVD, however the company that sent the disc went bankrupt before the DVD's hit the shelves. What I will say is that if you have a warm heart and enjoy modern romance from the perspective of today's teen's this is a movie well worth seeing.

The movie is delivered in four separate languages to make matters confusing Italian, Swedish, Iranian, and English; flicking between languages as the drop of the hat, so this is not the sort of movie to watch if you're eager to try and learn any of the above languages. This of course does not detract from the main point; this is a very good, compelling and charming love story.

The story concept is not a new one, mistaken identity movies are commonplace in American, Australian and British cinema, but less obvious when it comes to World Cinema. Ciao Bella delivers a very confident and perfectly understandable variation of this type of story, done here for reasons of acceptance rather than for comic effect which is how this sort of movie normally plays out. Comedy is very far from this movie, which looks in depth at cultural differences as well as aspects of sexual activity. There really is nothing to laugh at here, it's very serious stuff, but without being overpowering; this is definitely not a movie that is hard work to enjoy. I won't lie this is actually a very predictable movie that's outcome is obvious no sooner has the movie begun. What I will say is that I believe during the transition from script to screen the movie seems to have taken a different turn from what was initially expected. I say this because as the movies credits roll, that in fact are not proper credits more a list of images of the characters rather than the actors who play them; it strikes you that this is looking like a movie about the team, though as soon as Linnea comes along the whole football base of the movie seems forgotten for love. Luckily this is definitely something that pays off, and I'm much more happy with the love story than I might have been with a Swedish-Iranian version of American Pie.

The movie allows a nice view into the life of Swedish youth in the modern day, Sweden most definitely appears more multi-cultural than you might expect with vast amounts of Turkish, Iranian, Italian, Spanish and German residents all residing in Gothenberg. Those images of log cabins on icy lakes certainly are far gone here, Gothenberg looking like a very warm built up City filled with retail, social, and industrial influences; not necessarily the holiday style locations I had in my head, but I guess that's down to my narrow minded education and naivety of the modern world. I enjoyed the general laid back view of the population regardless of race, and the detail given to how the different races treat each other as well as one another.

I guess the movies big point is however the honesty, Linnea witnesses a series of lies from her father who has done his best to raise her alone, but has a clouded view of what women want. While Mustafa see's a very distressing view of life as a couple through his mother's eyes, is this a true reality of events however? One thing is for sure it's plain to see why the two lovers allow a few white lies snowball out of control.

On to the subject of sex, and it's the sexual references that are more offensive than anything you see in screen. The conversations are very harsh; lots of aggressive sexual talk between the different races and how they treat each other are often a bit hard to stomach. The imagery of sex however is nicely handled, nothing to intimate no real nudity, and sex scenes delivered from a distance. A rather interesting situation regarding oral sex shows the difference of culture as well as the expectations that go along with the act.

All the cast are well suited to the roles, although having looked at the Internet Movie Database none of the cast have an onscreen acting history, this being very much there first roles, but let's be honest Swedish movies are not of great abundance now or ever, not in the legal sense anyway.

I very much enjoyed Ciao Bella, it was filled with a combination of the harshness and loveliness that you encounter in life. And for those wanting a view of Sweden that might not match up to your mental image, this is a movie not to be missed.

Spencer Hawken 03/08 

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