Short Film: The Tailor — (A choice that sometime you have to make)

 

“The Tailor” is an interesting SHORT Italian film which in the first scene poses a quandary that lasts through the entire movie.  During the German occupation of Italy during WWII, a tailor and a German officer become friends of a sort.  The German officer brings cigarettes and food and in exchange wants the tailor to make him a dashing suit for an upcoming ceremony.

It’s the ‘of a sort’ that requires you to examine your own conscience.  Do you engage with the people who have a presence in your country and are the guests of Il Duce?   His wife doesn’t seem to understand he has no choice. She tells him they should have done what her father did – flee the country.  That’s a choice many Ukrainians made recently as Russian troops took up residence in the eastern part of the country.

 Poland was a common destination, but so was Russia.  The   numbers of people who fled Ukraine are known, but kept secret. 

Not long after the German Nazi leaves, Paolo’s sister Lucia arrives with the news she’s about to marry Mauro, a leader of the local partisans.  She wants a suit made for her soon-to-be husband.  As with the German, there’s a time limit.  The German officer wants the suit within five days, while his sister Marisa wants the suit made within four days. 

If this is not unsettling enough, Marisa tells Paolo that the Allies are creeping forward and will soon be near.  “I don’t want to know anything about that,” Paolo says fearfully.

He can’t work on two suits at the same time.  “You have to choose,” says Paolo’s wife, reminding me of a less drastic ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ a film requiring the heroine to choose one child for the gas chambers and one for the work farms. 

The ante for Paolo is upped when the Nazi officer comes for a measurement and invites Paolo and his wife to attend a ceremonial dinner. “You’ll become the foremost tailor of the Third Reich,” the German officer says.  It’s a test of nerves and loyalties for Paolo who looks stricken.  Like most of us, you see, all Paolo wants to do is live peacefully, do his job, and care for his family.

You ask yourself though.  When does acquiescence become participation?  Paolo’s peaceful aspirations are shattered when the Nazis discover her perfidy and execute Lucia.  Paolo’s wife is contemptuous of him for his passivity in the face of Nazi brutality.  She expects her husband to do something — take a side. 

As for cinematography, it’s sepia toned, nostalgic rather than stark.  Supporting Nazi characters are gray and occasionally cartoon-like. It’s a low-budget film, holding faithful to plot if not to the actions and dialogue of the film’s extras, but the plot is a good one and the conundrum it poses is appropriate to our own times.  

It’s an excellent short film, directed by Antonio Losito. You couldn’t spend a better fifteen minutes watching  as it comes to a surprising ending.