Saverio Costanzo, “In Gaza only darkness and fear are real”
Private - Di Saverio Costanzo ( 2004 ) Some films are able to endure over time. Private (2004), the debut of director Saverio Costanzo, is, unfortunately or fortunately, one of them. The film is based on a true and highly relevant story: the home of a Palestinian professor, Mohammad, is occupied by a group of Israeli soldiers. Mohammad, together with his family, chooses not to leave the house, opting for a silent, non-violent resistance. Saverio Costanzo presents the story in a raw, universal manner. With this film, he won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2004. Private was shown again during the twenty-ninth edition of the Umbria Film Festival...
Saverio Costanzo, «a Gaza solo il buio e la paura sono reali» | il manifesto Edition of July 16, 2025
The director recounts his debut “Private” about the Israeli occupation, presented again at the Umbria Film Festival
“In this house lives a large Palestinian Muslim family—father, mother, and several children.
A quiet life, without upheavals, though with fear for what is happening around them, and for what one day might also shatter their existence.
This comes true when a group of Israeli soldiers bursts into the house and decides to use it as an outpost, occupying the upper floor and leaving the family only the kitchen, which becomes a kind of prison-room.
A revelation at the latest Locarno Film Festival (Golden Leopard), Saverio Costanzo’s film has the undeniable merit of being able to depict the dynamics of a perpetual conflict by observing its most hidden, intimate aspects; it is the particular that becomes universal because, as we know, not only is the story of the film true, but it could have happened an infinite number of times, or may happen again.
Private transcends any form of moral commentary, focusing on the situation itself, on the (tremendous) psychological consequences it provokes in the characters, especially the children, closely observing steady and resolute faces (never expressionless), with a deliberately and exemplarily contrasted and grainy cinematography.
A (hyper)realist style, making broad use of handheld camera, in the clear attempt to pull the viewer inside that house, experiencing a clash which, little by little, becomes more and more difficult to endure.
And Private lets glimpse, between the lines, even a faint hint, nothing more than a truncated sketch, at the possibility of a dialogue, of an encounter between two cultures that often seem unable to come to terms, even when they might want to; a leftover of humanity among the soldiers, a flash of acquiescence from the head of the family’s young daughter toward them.
Then everything returns to how it was, with the soldiers leaving as they came, the family trying to resume its life, after having peacefully, resolutely defended their home.
But the ending is harrowing; the shadow of repetition attualissima:
