Bobò

Theater and film director Pippo Delbono first met Bobò decades ago, in a psychiatric institution in southern Italy. Bobò, a man of small stature who was also deaf and illiterate, had hardly been treated as a human being in all his 46 years. Literally and figuratively, he had no voice. Delbono “rescued” Bobò and brought him into his modern theater company, a world filled with dance, improvisation, and music. Bobò turned out to be a natural in the theater; creatively, the two men brought out the best in each other and taught one another the art of life itself.

Delbono constructs this affectionate portrait chiefly from film recordings of theater performances spanning 20 years, always starring Bobò. We also see an exuberant Bobò outside the theater, dancing on the beach, tooting a megaphone, and connecting with people in unique, poetic ways.

The director also returns to the ruins of the hospital in Aversa, where Bobò once cut a pitiable figure—in contrast with the second phase of his life, when he became a respected artist. The film is an ode to this great little man, who forever changed Delbono’s outlook on life, as well as his theater and film work.