INTO THE LABYRINTH

Italy, 2019, 130 minutes, Colour.

Dustin Hoffman, Toni Servillo, Valentina Belle.

Directed by Donato Carrisi.

Labyrinth is a keyword.

We see are quite elaborate labyrinth during the film, the story of the young girl abducted, kept a prisoner for many years, caught in the labyrinth, tormented, controlled, desperate.

By the end of the film, we realise that the screenplay itself is certainly a labyrinth, taking the audience into various sections but then their having to go back, exits blocked, seeking alternate routes. It is the work of Donato Carrisi see who also made the thriller, The Girl in the Fog.

There are two major strands in the screenplay and they meet only towards the end of the film. One strand is voiced in English, Dustin Hoffman playing Dr Green, a therapist, interviewing the girl and trying to elicit from her the story of what happened to her. The other strand, voiced in Italian, focuses on Toni’ Servillo as a private investigator, spending a long time trying to find the missing girl.

Dustin Hoffman’s sequences are generally confined to the therapist room. On the other hand, the private investigator, roams around, interviewing people, but his searches were complicated by the fact that he is terminally ill.

Various theories about what happened emerge, mysterious abductions of young men, a rabbit disguise and theme, all adding to the mystification. At one stage the two men do meet.

There are also quite some complications in the untangling of the plot, who the abducted girl was, what really happened to her during the abduction, the possible abductors and the role of Dr Green and his motivations for interviewing the young woman.

1. The suggestive title? The literal labyrinth of the narrative? The labyrinth of the plot itself? The demands on the audience?
2. The Italian setting, the city, offices, therapy rooms, the Italian countryside? The musical score?
3. Dialogue in English and Italian? The focus on Dustin Hoffman, the focus on Tony Servillo, the two different plot narratives, times, overlapping, finally bringing the strands together?
4. The abduction story, the focus on Samantha, her being found, hospital, identified, the abduction, many years imprisoned? The treatment in the hospital, the hospital staff? Her gradual recovery, memories, communicating? The revelations of her story, abducted, in the labyrinth, her tormentor, the prison conditions, squalor, other girls abducted? The ominous figure of the rabbit?
5. Dr Green, the interviews, therapists, sympathetic, urging Samantha to tell her story, the various stages of the story?
6. The contrast with Bruno Genko and his story, going back into the past, his being an investigator, his various commissions, seeing him in action, investigations? His health, terminal? As a character, over the years, dishevelled, drinking, ill? His communication with the authorities, with families? His determination to solve the case?
7. The film and its elaborating the stories of the two central characters, comparing and contrasting?
8. The two finally meeting, the conversation? The background of abductions, the mysterious young man, his growing up, the rabbit, his job, under suspicion? Other suspicious characters?
9. The final revelation about Dr Green, the theme of the rabbit, his labyrinth, the interview with Samantha and his playing mind games?
10. The effect of the film as an investigation, mystery, therapy, and the revelation of the mind games that the screenplay was playing on the audience?