Mondo 1995

Mondo 1995
1h 20min | Drama | 17 April 1996 (France)
Storyline
A fable unfolds. One summer day, a boy of about ten appears on the streets of Nice – no family, no possessions, no schooling, but with a brilliant smile. Mondo's most at home in gardens, fields, and at the seashore. The bustle of the city can seem to overwhelm him. He has good survival instincts, running from police and from threatening adults, and he is looking for a family. Over time, people come to know him – he helps out a street magician, befriends an old man who keeps doves in his suitcase, and finds a mother, herself an outsider. That smile is always at hand. Yet, no vagabond child sits well with the authorities. Can Nice keep this treasure of the spirit?
User review:
I can't review Tony Gatlif's films without some bias. I was absolutely blown away by Swing. Mondo is, actually, a different world. Of hues, colours, dreams and a very powerful story. Maybe one with which I feel deeply related to.
Mondo could be an angel fallen form heaven. His relationship with Nature and all of its signs and sounds is as if he's part of a different world than any populous city. There's no way to know where he comes from. He could be a Gypsy, but he's not. He could be a homeless boy. But, alas, he's not. The story told by Gatlif here is one of redemption from this world. We pretty easily outgrow any capacity left in us to wonder, to imagine, to admire the world as it is. We, as denizens of any big and dehumanised society, become simple followers of a fate that is not devised by our own means, it is a fact of life. A mere realisation that we are in a merry-go-round that eventually will stop. In the meanwhile, we'd just cling on to it and, one day, let go.