Samba, written by and starring Ettore D’Alessandro - 8.4 out of 10

Samba, written by and starring Ettore D’Alessandro

8.4 out of 10

Perhaps the only downside of this otherwise excellent film from the Dominican Republic – the only one so far seen by this cinephile – is that we have been here before and oh, so many times, from Rocky (not one of this viewer’s favorites) to Raging Bull, which is one of the top fifty best motion pictures ever made.

Nevertheless, even if we ‘know the drill’ and we would probably think of another classic of the boxing ring, the Clint Eastwood remarkable saga, the Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby, when watching Samba, it is still a rewarding, if familiar story.

Ettore D’Alessandro is a formidable actor, with an extraordinary personal experience, a man who has had a similar traumatic experience with the character he plays in the movie – for which he wrote the screenplay – for when he was eighteen, he has been through an accident, as he was riding the motorcycle with 200 kilometers per hour and he barely escaped alive, but his career as a professional rider was ended.

In Samba, Ettore D’Alessandro plays Nichi Valente, an Italian such as the actor himself, who lives in another country, where he works for a while in the kitchen of a restaurant, up to point where he cannot take any more humiliation, and when the manager and owner is pushing him, even after he was told to avoid touching him, the disabused employee sends him to the floor…well, it was the pavement actually.

Valente had been a champion boxer, up to the point where he was kicked severely and as a result, he has an eye of a different color from the other one, a paler blue, which could be seen as a disability.

The other protagonist of the film, the Raging Bull let us call him, although he is not as famous or successful as Jake LaMotta, is portrayed by the very good Algenis Perez Soto who is the boxer Francisco Castillo in the film.

This man has been in jail for fifteen years and when they announce him in the ring, they use the nickname or the fighting label “15 Years”, to emphasize his experience in the locker.

Niche Valente sees that the ex-inmate has potential, when he enters a fight and wants to manage his career – potential career that is – and to train him and show him what to do in a match.

This is where we have the feeling of the déjà vu, for we have seen heroes of other films running, boxing with a sparring partner, training hard to win and in this case, learning how to use the fists, using the force and natural skill with better tactics.

Francisco Castillo had not liked boxing, he only started to fight when he entered the prison, where he has been boxing for a long fifteen years and that experience shows in his grit, determination, resilience, bravery and tenacity that bring in victories.

Niche Valente has accumulated debts and when he loses his job in the kitchen of the restaurant, the loan shark is threatening, but not yet violent…he would use force later.

The Italian sells the apparently classic car he owns – a Datsun – to a man who has in his shop other allegedly rare and valuable vehicles.

Nonetheless, when the negotiation starts, the viewer can be surprised, for if we think many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions when we talk about ‘classic cars’, in this case, the starting offer is rather low…

$ 250!

They agree on about $ 190, but the loan shark is quite mad to hear about this transaction and says so when he meets with Valente, who is kicked by the hatchet men of the local gangster.

Luna Torres is another important character in the narrative, a woman that has the unusual position of boxing manager and intermediary, who meets with Nichi to negotiate over the winnings from the boxing matches.

Earlier, she takes seventy per cent to the thirty for Valente, but later on, the starting share would be reversed.

In an unexpected turn of events, Luna drives in her car with Francisco, stops and looks to the dash to play some music and rather strikingly, she unzips the man who is standing next to the car to perform felatio on him…

In other words, even if we know the story of the boxer inside out – another Academy Awards Winner comes to mind- The Fighter, with Christian Bale – there are always surprises in store.

Moreover, Samba is a respectable Dominican treat.