on billboard
The tutor of a theater workshop for prisoners ends up empathizing with his students as if his life depended on it. The motley crew is endearing on stage in this French production selected at Cannes in 2020
‘The Triumph’ is one of those remarkable titles of 2020 that, due to the ravages of the blessed pandemic, has not found a place on the billboard until today. Its potential audience is the one that inhabits the sessions in the original version, or early in the afternoon, an essential circuit when it comes to sustaining certain authorial cinematography that finds the bulk of its followers in an advanced age group. As the filmmaker and showman Nacho Vigalondo has once commented, that “lady from Cuenca” referred to in television dispatches when discussing possible audiences, representing the purity of the average viewer, is now the one who is saving largely the traditional display. I mean, it goes through the box office. Whether or not it is a simple joke or an ingenious observation, the French success that concerns us has waited to see the light for these payments after not being able to premiere in person with the official seal of the Cannes Festival 2020. It was able to close the Valladolid Festival that same year , but the shadow of the coronavirus once again changed the rules of the game that finally give air to the usual cinemas.
Starring Kad Meran (‘Welcome to the North’), Marina Hands (‘The Barbarian Invasions’) and Laurent Stocker (‘The Summer House’), ‘The Triumph’ is a grateful light drama, with touches of endearing comedy, that mixes cinema and theater without falling into pedantry. We are facing a story of overcoming located in a prison, and on stage, between freedom and the absence of it. A veteran actor, with a vague artistic career, is in charge of coordinating a workshop with convicts whom he convinces to interpret ‘Waiting for Godot’, by Samuel Beckett. The relationship between the prisoners and the teacher in the prison takes root as they get to know each other and interact. From wanting to try simple humorous sketches to combat boredom, the inmates go on to rehearse a weighty work that takes them on a tour outside their confinement. The curious company becomes a phenomenon in certain circles to the point of receiving a juicy proposal to perform in Paris in front of the Minister of Justice. Parallel to the success of the montage, we know the feelings of the protagonists and a very special connection is established between the characters, each more diverse. The ending of the film becomes strange, too incredible, until the credits remind us that it is a film inspired by a true story, which invites even more emotion.
‘El triumph’ is committed to light over darkness. Despite dealing with a subject tending to the visceral, it does not tighten the nuts in the tone of a prison drama and opts for squeezing the possibilities of the staging between the main characters, who exhibit a remarkable naturalness. Emmanuel Courcol, director of the piece, responsible for ‘Alto el fuego’, is not interested in delving into the unpleasant side of the situation and offers the viewer an entertaining message that adds a note to the profitable category of feel-good movie to the French The cast is as picturesque as it is affectionate, striking the right chord with a performance of bluebells.