Zielen van Napels

In his quest for the soul of Naples, Van Monnikendam interwove images of the ubiquitous contrast between poor and rich with Neapolitan stories, poems and music. This beautiful documentary does not focus on the architecture or tourist pictures, but the human drama unfolding in front of the camera. The idea for the film came about around the 400th anniversary of the aristocratic Neapolitan charity organisation Pio Monte della Misericordia. In 1606, the founders gave the painter Caravaggio the commission for a painting. Charity, reconciliation, life and death are the four themes that are portrayed in this portrait, The Seven Acts of Mercy. It is still the great pride of the Pio Monte church in the centre of Naples. Every Friday, the aristocratic board meets in the church to assist with the mass and to discuss alms for the poor. The contrast between rich and poor returns in both form and substance in Souls of Naples. A sharp contrast, just as in the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio’s painting, that forms the linking factor between all those portrayed. The title refers both to the Neapolitans in the film as it does to their various interpretations of ‘the soul of Naples’. Cameraman Melle van Essen must have seen the beauty, because he made a stunning and penetrating portrait. (SdH)