You might assume that a celebrity making a film about a beautiful foreign country is a vanity project, like maybe as a way to spend more time near a swanky vacation home, but filmmaker Trudie Styler says she was not that familiar with Naples before deciding to make a film about the ancient port city in Sicily. You wouldn’t know that though, from watching Posso Entrare? An Ode To Naples, out now on Hulu. The 2023 documentary is a collection of historical anecdotes and personal stories about the lives of several inhabitants of Naples that form a lovely, loving pastiche that’s pays homage to the place that nearly one million people call home. Styler positions the city’s darkest moments, from volcanic eruptions to organized crime and Nazi occupation, as a springboard to showcase its resilience, quietly showcasing the strength of some of its least assuming citizens. There are no touristy shots at sunset, no food porn, just the stories of real people, told with a sense of respect and admiration for them and the city they come from.
POSSO ENTRARE?: AN ODE TO NAPLES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A performer named Clementino raps a tribute to the history of Naples. It’s a history lesson rolled into a hip hop performance that’s also a deeply personal ode to the city.
The Gist: Actress, producer and director Trudie Styler appears throughout Posso Entrare? An Ode To Naples – posso entrare translates to “may I come in?” which we see Styler ask her first subject, a local priest, as she enters the church – and the title alone feels like a polite request made to a place that has rarely been entered in polite fashion. Sicily’s history is filled with battles and hostile takeovers. The street at the center of the city, Spacca Napoli, cuts through it “like an ancient wound,” explains Styler, and much of the imagery and description used throughout the film uses this kind of almost violent imagery that refers to the city’s reputation, only to counter that with tales of its resilience.
Styler introduces us to several Neapolitans, each with very different stories: an author, Roberto Saviano, whose investigation into organized crime has left him unable to go anywhere without armed bodyguards, a local councilwoman whose mother was killed in a shootout between rival criminal gangs, a group of women who have formed a support group for domestic abuse survivors. And on and on. The stories are all connected by the sense of place and a sense of pride – they reflect vastly different experiences, and yet they are all held together by the resilience each subject feels, which stems from coming from a place they love and want to improve. While it’s easy to conjure up images of The Godfather: Part 2 or The White Lotus when you think of Sicily, Styler refrains from glorifying or depicting what audiences are typically familiar with when we think of the island, and instead trains her lens on neighborhoods and small pockets within communities, the places where communities are formed. She has stated that she gained access to these places simply by knocking on doors and asking to talk (hence the name of the film), and that intimacy and familiarity is evident throughout. (And if you’re wondering, yes, Styler’s husband Sting does make an appearance, a performance in fact, in the film.)
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s hard to think of travel shows, especially shows set in Italy, that don’t focus on the gorgeous scenery and the food. The closest show I can think of that offered an intimate connection with the people, as much as the touristy aspects of a place, is Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, but Styler and Bourdain’s approaches are vastly different.
Our Take: The film examines the legacy of organized crime, called the Camorra, on the island and how its very existence has shaped Naples. With so many of the men in the area lured by crime, a local priest describes the city as being very “feminine,” the result of so many women having to lead the charge, raising their families alone, educating their children as the only adult presence in their lives. And yet the culture is also shaped by fear, as the men in local cartels and crime families hold court in heavily populated areas, with innocent people often caught – often literally – in their crossfire.
Where many travel documentaries focus on the food or the sights, Posso Entrare chooses to focus on the people almost exclusively. There are history lessons throughout the film, including Naples’ role in resisting Nazi occupation during World War II and the repeating eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, that offer some context to understanding the Neapolitan mindset that’s been shaped by these setbacks.
The film is a collection of human stories that are all different and unique, and assembled together they provide a genuine understanding of this place. It’s hard not to draw parallels to what’s happening in the world at the moment: the relentless oppression, political strife, and natural disasters that have repeatedly decimated Naples are, whether intentionally or not, an allegory for current problems all over the globe. Styler’s decision is to focus on people who have chosen to bolster their communities in small but powerful ways in response to hardship. Taken in sum, her subjects collectively provide an optimistic perspective on how to combat a sense of oppression, and how to find, or even be a beacon of hope, even when situations seem hopeless.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: A youth orchestra performs a concert, with much of the audience consisting of the locals we’ve previously met throughout the film. When the performers finish, the audience erupts in a standing ovation. Over the end credits, we see a montage of many of the people and places from earlier in the film.
Memorable Dialogue: “In spite of the challenges they face while living in Naples, the people I meet demonstrate unequivocal loyalty to their city,” Styler says at one point, and that is essentially her thesis for this whole film.
Our Call: STREAM IT! Posso Entrare? is not so much a travelogue as it is a cultural lesson, one that offers a glimpse at a few small segments of Neapolitan life and that you’ll likely never see as a tourist.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Posso Entrare? An Ode To Naples’ on Hulu, A Thoughtful Portrait of The Resilience Of The Sicilian City appeared first on Decider.
