The city and the city – Tom Shankland

tratto da un bellissimo romanzo di China Mieville (qui), ecco una miniserie da quattro puntate per la BBC, praticamente un film lungo.
non era facile tradurre un gran romanzo in un film poliziesco e distopico, ma la sceneggiatura di Tony Grisoni c'è riuscita.
un omicidio come tanti, ma non in quella/e città.
il commissario Borlù deve andare dall'altra parte, in un'indagine che sembra impossibile.
sembra un film di fantascienza...
da non perdere, e poi il libro, o viceversa, l'ordine lo decidete voi - Ismaele

…Ah, già, la serie. Attraverserete varie fasi, come quando si passa da Beszel a Ul Qoma e viceversa. All’inizio la odierete, perché come vi distraete un attimo non capite più niente, poi però disvedete il divano, i vostri piedi sul tavolino ed entrate nel mondo delle due città. A Beszel troverete anche il partito neonazista, pieno di skinheads orrendi che -indovinate un po’, sbraitano contro gli immigrati, e scoprirete che il loro leader, un verme baffuto e molliccio, è identico a quel fascistone di Enoch Powell che tanto piaceva a quell’incommensurabile imbecille di Eric Clapton (il cui problema, evidentemente, non è mai stata la droga ma la cretinaggine innata). Disvedete e guardatevi The City and The City. Consigliatissimo.

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…This production makes for a dense, demanding drama, throwing you in at the deep end with all sorts of terms and jargon that treats the world as real, challenging you to keep up and work it all out as it goes. There’s no hand-holding here. I guess that explains its low ratings on IMDb and the raft of “people were, like, totes confused by David Morrissey’s new drama!” articles that accompanied its airing. In terms of what it is“about”, the visual style very much evokes ’80s Soviet countries in Besźel, with secret police and dated, rundown cars and gloomy yellow-brown palette; while Ul Qoma is characterised by blues, glass and steel, LCD screens — a modern metropolis, but with different kinds of oppression. It’s very timely in its depiction of far-right nationalist groups being ascendent vs those seeking unification and tolerance being crushed — I wonder if that’s why it got made now, or if it’s just a fortunate coincidence.

Not everyone’s going to get on with The City and the City’s challenges, but there’s something here for those prepared to attempt the trip. Put it this way: after it finished, I popped on Amazon and ordered the book.

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… The story begins with two cities, Beszel and Ul Qomas, occupying the same space in time but separated by a strange aura that makes the other city appear hidden to the naked eye, depending on which side of the border you’re standing. When a dead Ul-Qoman girl mysteriously appears is Beszel, it’s up to Inspector Tyador Borlú to find out what happened to her and stop whoever’s responsible. The four hour-long episodes see him travel across the border to Ul Qoma and back again, trying desperately to solve the case that rings eerily similar to the disappearance of his wife several years earlier. As the episodes progress, the slow-pace does pick up slightly as more revealing facts about his wife’s disappearance are divulged and answers begin trickling in. It’s at this point that the plot evolves to include lore around a possible third city nestled between the two existing ones resulting in Borlú changing his approach to the case…

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… This moody series, directed by Tom Shankland, conveys the notion of twin cities smartly, utilising reflections at every given opportunity to demonstrate that duality, and lending a distinct colour palette to each city to help us keep track of where we are.

The production design also creates a busy mise-en-scène – Besźel is cluttered, and covered in graffiti – to help generate a cramped atmosphere. After all, two cities sitting on top of one another (even if you only chose to perceive one) are going to feel claustrophobic, and Shankland nails the atmosphere, using interesting angles and often placing objects that partly obstruct our vision in the foreground of shots, as if the camera could barely fit in this already twice-occupied space. Besźel is a wholly convincing location.

The City and the City takes all the staples of a detective show – the gruff, smoking leading man, the tortured backstory, the rookie partner, the distrust of other departments, etc – and lays them on top of the strange dual-cities premise, breathing life into them all as a result.

Morrisey is excellent, while Dhillon gets to play Corwi with a refreshing brashness. The richness of the cinematography and the authentic noir atmosphere mean The City and the City is, rather appropriately, a show that feels like two things at once: a classic noir detective story, and a bold, high-concept fantasy sitting on top of one another; a series that's simultaneously comfortingly familiar and brazenly fresh.

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