“In life, everyone has to accept the role that was destined for him”
–words spoken in the film The Desert of the Tartars, words that best describe the essence of the film
The film Desert of
the Tartars, when released in 1976 did not win accolades at film festivals
outside Italy, not even being nominated at the prestigious Italian Venice Film
festival. Over the decades, it has gradually been recognized as a classic and, 37
years after it was made, it was restored and screened at the 2018 Cannes film festival
as one.
One could argue that the importance of the film is primarily
due to its adaptation of a major literary work The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati published in 1940 in Italian and
subsequently translated into English.
Like the movie, the novel bloomed with time. In 1999, the prestigious
French daily Le Monde, in its poll,
ranked Buzzati’s book as the 29th best book of the century. The book had become an iconic example of
“magic realism” in literature. The book went on to influence the writings of
major writers including the Nobel Prize winner J E M Coetzee, the
Lebanese-American statistician and financial analyst turned author Nassim
Nicolas Taleb (author of The Black Swan, described
by The Sunday Times of UK as one of
the 12 most-influential books since World War II) and the Booker Prize winner Yann
Martel (author of Life of Pi).
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| The idealistic Lt Drago (Jacques Perrin) arrives on the outskirts of the Fort Batiani where he will serve for years seeking glory that will elude him |
Italian director Valerio Zurlini saw of the opportunity of adapting
the novel on screen when its value was lesser known than it is now, realizing
the potential of subtle visuals and music on screen to bring the magic realism
of the words in the book. Actor Jacques Perrin had procured the film rights of
the book from Buzzati. Zurlini corralled the talents of music composer Ennio
Morricone, the elegant cinematographer Luciano Tavoli, and a stunning array of
top-notch international actors (Max von Sydow, Jean- Louis Trintignant, Vittorio
Gassman, Fernando Rey, Jacques Perrin, Helmut Griem, the spaghetti western hero
Giuliano Gemma, Philippe Noiret, Francisco Rabal, etc). So were some important
Iranian actors of the day included in the film such as Mohamad Ali Keshavarz,
who is not listed in the IMdB credits for the film but this fact appears on the
Wikipedia page of the Iranian actor.
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| Lt Drago introduces himself to the officers at Fort Bastiani. The empty chair is for him. |
The Desert of the
Tartars, the film, is an almost all male film, save for the initial
sequences of the film showing Lt. Drago at home with his mother as he wakes up
from sleep to dress up into military uniform. He enthusiastically rides out of
town on a Tartar horse, to report at a far away post of the Italian army in the
year 1902. It is his first posting in the army.
The brief initial sequences reveal that the young man belongs to a rich
and influential family and is respected by another horse-rider on the streets, who
accompanies him up to the edge of the town, apparently knowing Lt. Drago’s
intent. Not a single other human being or animal is shown in the town. Zurlini
intentionally does away with unnecessary social farewells and family. The horse
and its rider are the only objects that matter until the rider meets other
military men on his journey.
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| Lt Drago (right) interacts with Lt Simeon (Helmut Griem) atop the fort |
Zurlini’s film shows Lt. Drago leaving his town early in the
morning without food/provisions on horseback and arriving at the fortress with
just a gulp of water/wine provided by Captain Ortiz (von Sydow) whom he meets
en route possibly within a day. Drago’s horse drinks water from a stream once.
Yet we realize the Bastiani Fort is very far from Lt Drago’s town or any town
for that matter. Time is compressed—magic realism is at work.
Zurlini’s major winning decision was the choice of the location
to film the story—a fort on the edges of a desert. It was not in Africa on the
edges of the Sahara, or even in Ethiopia. The filming was done in Iran while
the Shah of Iran was in power, in and around a real fort made of clay—the Bam
citadel (Arg-e Bam)—built in the third century AD. The impressive structure—a UNESCO
World Heritage site-- was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake in 2003,
but the Islamic government of Iran rebuilt it to match its original grandeur.
(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arg_e_Bam for the images of the fort as the
Zurlini film captured it and how it appears now after restoration post the 2003
earthquake).
Apparently, Zurlini chose this location after seeing the painting La Torre Rossa by an Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. All those decisions taken
by Zurlini contributed to make The
Desert of the Tartars the film classic it is today.
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| One of the officers at the fort is Maj. Dr. Rovine (Jean- Louis Trintignant), an enigma treating the maladies of the militia posted at the fort |
Not unlike Franz Kafka’s books The Castle, the Buzzati tale is a quixotic look at human desire to
achieve glory in life. Lt. Drago, born into a distinguished family, hopes to
attain glory in military life, as he is chosen by fate to serve the Italian
army at an obscure border station, a castle on the edge of the desert expecting
invasion night and day by the Tartars. Zurlini,
who was a Communist, underscores the social divide by looking critically at the
at the lives of officers living in luxury and riding horses, while foot
soldiers drag heavy material on command
and are punished severely when they step out of line. Time is a critical
element that does not seem to exist throughout the film. Only graves and death
of soldiers bring time into focus. Officers and soldiers continue to be
billeted at the fort for months and years for the sake of being promoted and
hopefully gain honour in battle when it happens. There is almost no contact
with their families. Any attempt to get a transfer is subtly thwarted, not
unlike Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red
Line that followed several decades later, The Desert of the Tartars is less a film about battles but more
about battles of the mind and conscience. At the fort, the viewer learns that
there was no battle fought so far. Yet as Lt. Drago arrives he sees graves of
soldiers with reversed guns or sabres on top of them, according to their ranks.
How then did so many die?
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| Lt Drago is introduced to the General (Philippe Noiret) by Col. Fillimore (Vittorio Gassman) (center) |
The depth of both the book and the film The Desert of the Tartars emerges from the lack of action in a
military setting .The questions the film throws up are existential in nature.
The idealistic Lt Drago is an anti-hero joining a group of military men, all
trying to prepare for battle against a perceived foe, an army that cannot be
seen or even confirmed to exist. Buzzati was possibly making a veiled reference
to Mussolini’s military campaign in Ethiopia in 1935. A close examination of Buzzati’s book and
Zurlini’s film reveal that the tale is not based on real events but is merely
an allegorical and psychological tale.
Officers and soldiers on the look-out duty sometimes spot
rider-less horses and riders on horseback. Are they real or imagined? Why are
known soldiers killed if they do not know a critical password? Why is the
camaraderie of foot soldiers not appreciated by the officers? The film is
equally critical of the lives of army officials and their egos of differing
nature.
Here are important excerpts of an Italian journalist’s
interview with author Buzzati on the Zurlini film
Author Dino Buzzati: "If I were the director - for the soldiers of the Fortezza Bastiani I would not choose a single uniform, but all the most beautiful uniforms in history, as long as they were slightly worn, rather like old flags. I am thinking of the uniforms of the dragoons, the hussars, he musketeers encountered in the pages of Dumas, the Bengal Lancers, like the ones used in a film with Gary Cooper...Of course, together with the uniforms, also different helmets, caps and badges. In other words, a regiment that has never existed but which is universal."
Italian journalist Giulio Nascimbeni: "Which uniform would you have Lieutenant Drogo wear?"
Author Dino Buzzati: "I should dress him up like a Hapsburg officer because Drogo's life is pointless, but full of pride."
(courtesy : trad.Interpres-Giussano) (Ref: http://www.payvand.com/news/03/jun/1165.html)
What were the major departures that Zurlini made in the film
from the book? The book discusses the ravages of time in the world outside the
fort, the fate of Lt. Drago’s family and friends. While Lt Drago became Capt.
Drago at the fort, some of his friends and family have died, some have married
in his town. When an officer dies in the fort, his body is transported on a gun
carriage and taken home to his family for burial. Time stands still within the
fort and the film, while in the book the time takes its toll on the denizens of
the Italian towns.
It is well known that David Lean wanted to make the film but
one doubts if he could have created the bleak, existential and lonely world of
Lt Drago and chosen Bam for the main location. Zurlini made his perfect swan
song.
P.S. This critic watched The Desert of the Tartars for the second time after a gap of more than
35 years and was convinced that it belonged to his top 100 films list. It is
now listed there--a film that never won a major award outside the country of
the director. It is a film that belongs to the world—to Italy, Iran, France and
Germany in particular.
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