Discussing ‘Anywhere Anytime’
At first glance, director Milad Tangshir’s feature directorial debut Anywhere Anytime has much in common with the Italian Neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves (1948). That is intentional and wasn’t a feat that Tangshir took lightly at any point throughout the six-year process.
“I think it’s insane to approach a timeless masterpiece and remake it,” Tangshir said. “It’s not worth it to spend so many years if it’s not something you can’t not tell. It should be essential and urgent and [this film] was that for me.”
Both films follow a struggling man living in poverty working to make ends meet. In Bicycle Thieves, Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) takes a job hanging up posters around the city with his son while in Anywhere Anytime, Issa (Ibrahima Sambou) delivers food to the community. In order to get the job done, bicycles are needed.
But beyond simple plot comparisons, Tangshir’s take on the classic film school staple also carries similarities with Italian neorealism’s frequency of casting non-professional actors. 28-year-old actor Sambou is a newcomer to not just acting but the film industry at large.
Tangshir spent two years meeting with over 100 people at immigrant and hospitality programs to find the right leading man. And through the sheer luck of a mutual friend, Tangshir came across Sambou.
“He came and just killed it, he had the intensity of the gaze and everything,” Tangshir said.
But you wouldn’t know that Sambou had never acted before from watching his star-making performance. Since the film mostly follows him (with only a love interest and best friend rounding out the main cast), Tangshir knew that the film would ride or die based on his performance since the audience spends so much time tracking his every movement.
As Tangshir describes it, it’s “his face and the city” that make it.
Sambou admitted he was “a little bit nervous” when starting out but found that by the end, the process “became pretty smooth.” Now he’s hoping to continue acting and is currently auditioning for roles. Like Tangshir, a deeper circumstantial fate made Sambou feel connected to the story: the immigrant experience.
“I took a boat from Senegal to Italy, so I know many people in Italy and my friends going through hardships,” Sambou said. “I have a friend who’s also doing delivery with a bike. Those jobs in Italy are less paid and valued.”
This is where this modern retelling makes major changes from the original. While Bicycle Thieves follows a family that has lived in Italy for their entire lives and doesn’t explicitly tackle race, Anywhere Anytime follows Issa’s perspective as a Black man and how his identity stacks the odds against him. The film also tackles themes of police brutality.
“I’m grateful [for the film] to spread voices for those who couldn’t,” Sambou said.
After successful premieres at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival bringing this story all over the world, Tangshir and Sambou are returning to Italy in order to screen the film: a fitting home for a film deeply invested in the lives of the community.
“We shot it in the part of Turin that is overwhelmingly underrepresented,” Tangshir said. “We wanted to show a little more of where we lived–our neighborhoods. When we were shooting, people came up to me in the streets … I’m happy that it has an echo on the city and I can’t wait to give back.”
Article Courtesy of Matt Minton
Feature Image from IMDb