As God Commands (Come Dio Commanda) (2008)

I am a big fan of Italian author Niccolo Ammaniti and have read every one of his books that’s been translated into a language I can read (regrettably, Italian is not one of them). As God Commands is based on his latest novel, The Crossroads and I was super excited to see it was on at this year’s Italian Film Festival.

Ammaniti’s Italy is not warmed by the Tuscan sun, nor does it feature romantic gondola rides in Venice, beautiful women in the Trevi Fountain or any other iconic tourist or film images that most non-Italians associate with Italy. The characters in As God Commands live in a bleak, industrialised provincial town, where there is little sunshine, real, or metaphorical. Poverty, dissatisfaction and social inequality are the norm.

Cristiano is thirteen and lives hand-to-mouth with his dad, Rino. Rino has a giant swastika on his bedroom wall, works as a labourer part time and sits in front of the TV drinking beer, full time. However, he is not completely devoid of charm and the father and the son are strongly devoted to one another, living in fear that Cristiano will be taken away by the social services.

The only other person in the pair’s lives who means anything to them is Quattro Formaggi, Rino’s mentally disabled friend. Quattro Formaggi, so named after his favourite pizza, is in love with an American porn star and spends his time building a nativity crib made up of toys and figurines, in his living room.

On a cold, wet night, nasty stuff happens that pushes Cristiano to do unthinkable things out of love and loyalty to his father.

Ammaniti specialises in black comedy which he uses to satirise and comment on the contemporary Italian society. He can be very dark, even downright morbid, but also whimsical, quirky and most of all, laugh-out-loud funny. He is also the master of plotting, you never know where he’s going to take his characters but you can’t wait to find out.

All of these qualities feature prominently in The Crossroads, but not many have made it through to the movie adaptation. The humour is completely gone as are the secondary characters whose exploits added further storytelling layers and richness to the book. All that left is the basic plot which makes As God Commands, a competent but otherwise unremarkable drama/thriller. For me, knowing exactly where the plot was going to go, it was also slightly boring and the heavy subject matter with no comic relief is a real downer.

This has been said before, but do skip the movie and read the book. Or, check out I am not Scared, a much better film adaptation of an Ammaniti novel.