This inspiring tale, based on the life of renowned French-Algerian conductor Zahia Ziouani and her twin sister, concert cellist Fettouma Ziouani, begins in a housing block on the outskirts of Paris in 1985, as young Zahia is transfixed by Ravel’s Bolero playing on her parents’ TV.
Ten years later, teensZahia (Oulaya Amamra) and Fettouma (Lina El Arabi) are studying at a prestigious conservatoire. There, they encounter chauvinism and rudeness, as the snobby, entitled student body rejects the notion that two poor girls from the ‘burbs can have a place there. But with grace and gritted teeth, Zahia pursues her dream of becoming a conductor.
The basic plot is a very blunt instrument: two hardworking immigrant sisters from the banlieues are thrown into a cohort of kids whose parents are celebrated musicians, who own the best instruments, and “who don’t even want to turn professional”.
Watching Zahia suffer countless indignities, including from the French musical patriarchy, which says women cannot conduct, is a gruelling journey at times.
Rather like Tár, in which Cate Blanchett played a superstar conductor, Divertimento is a musician’s movie. The script expounds on the essence of the innate power of music; the styles of various composers, the method of famous conductors, the context in which famous pieces were created.
But you don’t need to know your appoggiatura from your acciaccatura to appreciate the film – the glorious soundtrack bounces from Schubert to Tchaikovsky and Saints-Saëns, and these sublime moments of orchestral glory and fascinating snippets of musical history make up for the very straightforward plot and its clichéd telling.
Veteran conductor Sergiu Celibidache (Niels Arestrup) advises Zahia, “Life is music. But your music is not alive yet,” and the dialogue is full of similar aphorisms. No doubt this reflects the experience felt by the real-life Zahia, but in movie form, it diminishes what is otherwise a charming and deeply heartfelt story.
Divertimento, directed by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaaris in cinemas now.
