DIVERTIMENTO, France, 2023. Starring Oulaya Amamra, Lina El Arabi, Niels Arestrup, Zinedine Soualem, Nadia Kaci, Laurent Cirade, Martin Chapoutot. Directed by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar. 110 minutes. Rated PG (Mild themes)
A film for music lovers and music pervades the film. The great range of music throughout the film includes some well-known pieces – Ravel’s Bolero, Prokofiev and Romeo and Juliet, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Schubert, Mozart . . .
Divertimento is based on actual characters and events. [For those not aware of the characters, a recommendation to do some googling after watching the film to discover more about them and their huge musical achievement.]
Divertimento opens with Bolero. It’s 1985 and the Ziouani family, which has migrated from Algeria to the Paris suburbs, is watching television where a famous conductor is conducting Ravel’s famous work. Zahia, one of the couple’s twin daughters, is moving her hand in the rhythms of conducting. Then a transition to 1995. Zahia (Amamra) and her twin Fettouma (El Arabi) are 17. Zahia, the older by some minutes, is studying music and even conducting a local suburban orchestra. Fettouma is a cellist.
The film focuses on a short period in the twins’ lives. The two sisters attend the Paris music Conservatorium but are subject to class- and race-based discrimination. When it quickly emerges that Zahia wants to conduct, there is added ridicule about female conductors.
Zahia is strong-minded and strong-willed. Not only does she persevere, standing up to the star conductor student but when eventually falling victim to preference for male conductors, she asks a question of a celebrated conductor, Sergiu Celibidache (veteran Arestrup). Celibidache makes comments about female conductors not persevering but shows great interest in Zahia, inviting her to his ensemble, critical, humiliating, yet encouraging . . .
Part of the drama of Zahia’s enthusiasm is her wanting to have her own orchestra. She is only 17 and receives a great deal of criticism. But she perseveres, practising conducting Prokofiev with a piano student, then persuading some of the Paris students to come out to her suburb and be part of the orchestra. In a competition she plays Saint-Saens’ ‘Danse Bacchanale’. She is depressed when her sister is not awarded a gold medal at her exam (though there is a pleasing sequence when her critic presents her with a marvellous cello) and she herself is defeated by the male student in the conducting exam.
The sisters call their orchestra Divertimento – and it is a commitment to their suburban community, especially with children. We see a Down Syndrome girl learning the cello by using colours on each string, matched with colours on the music sheet.
The ending might seem overly happy – and it certainly is happy, conducting, the orchestra in the street, suburban onlookers, and a vigorous rendition of Bolero. Which is not a fanciful ending at all when one knows about the success of the two sisters and their orchestra. Once again, it is recommended audiences do some research and find out what the sisters have achieved.
Potential
Released 20 June