Freaks Out

A fantasy film set in Rome under German occupation in 1943. Four people work in a small circus, each with an extraordinary property: one is covered in hair and enormously strong, one talks to insects, one generates electricity, one draws metal to himself. Israel, who runs the circus, has protected them for years. When the Germans take him away, the four are left with nobody. The figure on the other side carries a difference too: Franz is a pianist born with six fingers on each hand who can see the future. What he sees is Germany losing the war, and he is looking for these four in order to change it. What is interesting is that it runs two genres at once: a wartime drama on one side, a superhero story on the other. The exclusion of the circus performers and the racial politics of the period are treated on the same plane. Gabriele Mainetti directed. By the measure of Italian cinema this counts as a large budget, and most of the effects were made domestically. It screened at the Venice film festival in 2021. An interesting production for anyone who likes mixed genres and unusual war narratives. It runs past two and a half hours and the violence is hard at times; the register moves between entertainment and pain.