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PA-RA-DA and the Red Clown Noses

PA-RA-DA, the debut film for Marco Pontecorvo, son of Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo, is the story of a French man who travels to Bucharest to help children living on the streets.

When Miloud Oukili read about the Romanian children’s plight in the French newspapers, he left Paris, using his skills as a clown to help homeless children prostituting themselves and addicted to drugs.

Years after Oukili left France, Pontecorvo read his story in the newspapers and made Oukili the subject of PA-RA-DA, which made its Middle East debut on Sunday night.

When asked if he agreed with the label ‘saint’ or ‘hero’, Oukili was careful to point out that the film tells the story of many children in Bucharest who successfully from the skills imparted to survive and thrive.

Pontecorvo said the number of characters involved in Oukili’s story created challenges in making the film.

“At the beginning it was difficult to understand as to how to approach the material,” he said, “The difficulty was to add all the little passages that are in the story.”

Sheila Whitaker, head of international films for DIFF, said Pontecorvo had succeeded. It won the Pasinetti Award at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

emily@khaleejtimes.com

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