Venice 2024 review: Anywhere Anytime (Milad Tangshir)

“An effective indictment against the capitalist and government forces that trap undocumented immigrants on the margins of society and force them into taking daily risks to survive.”

A modern-day riff on Vittorio De Sica’s classic film Bicycle Thieves, Iranian-Italian filmmaker Milad Tangshir’s debut film Anywhere Anytime is yet another in the long line of recent European films following the struggles of immigrants trying to survive in Europe. While Tangshir doesn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of storytelling, his modestly-scaled story is a gripping character study of Issa (Ibrahima Sambou), an undocumented Senegalese immigrant living in Turin who, with the aid of his friend Mario (Moussa Dicko Diango), obtains work as a food-delivery rider. Issa’s fragile stability is almost immediately shattered when his bicycle is stolen while on the job, and much of the film’s slender 80-minute runtime is devoted to his seemingly hopeless quest to recover the bicycle.

While Tangshir’s film takes an admirably realistic approach to Issa’s story – from the moment the bike is stolen you know that the film won’t have a fairy-tale Hollywood ending – it refreshingly avoids falling into clichés of European auteur miserabilism for much of its runtime. Even in the film’s most dramatically intense moments it never becomes overly morose, although a certain plot development near the end reveals the heavy hand of a screenwriter. Much of the credit for the film’s success must go to newcomer Sambou, who dominates the screen from the first frame with a charismatic and delicate performance that is simultaneously taciturn but graceful. Even as Issa becomes increasingly desperate, Sambou and Tangshir resist resorting to showy displays of emotion, instead relying on a sense of interiority that is only broken by Issa’s subtly agitated body language and the eyes which occasionally betray flashes of fear and hopelessness. When Issa is involved in confrontations that could quickly turn violent, he retains a sense of calm that reflects on his precarious status, knowing that one false move could get him deported or even killed. But what makes the film and Sambou’s performance even more effective are the brief moments of joy that Issa experiences throughout the film – celebrating purchasing the bike with Mario, a romantic evening spent cycling around the city with kindhearted fellow immigrant Awa (Success Edemakhiota), and a brief moment spent with an elderly woman (Rosa Lampugnani) who renews Issa’s sense of hope and reminds him of the power of familial bonds. In these scenes, Sambou relaxes and reveals a charming screen presence, which makes it even clearer that the degrading experiences that Issa goes through are slowly killing his spirit. These moments, along with the film’s jazzy score, simultaneously provide the film and Issa a respite from the instability of his daily life while also serving as a mournful reminder that his status in society will most likely prevent him from gaining the stability and companionship that he so desperately craves.

Tangshir’s film, while presenting scenarios seen many times before, is an effective indictment against the capitalist and government forces that trap undocumented immigrants on the margins of society and force them into taking daily risks to survive. The viewer is introduced to Issa as he is shepherded to his job at an outdoor market and is subsequently fired by his boss after the latter is spooked by the appearance of police officers, and this looming threat of capture acts as a potent motor for Issa as he takes on his job as a delivery rider and attempts to retain it at any cost. Throughout the film, Issa catches glances of other delivery riders, all of whom are people of color and presumably undocumented immigrants like himself. This simple but effective recurring visual is a striking reminder of how popular food delivery companies prey on the most vulnerable to take on such work for meager pay. And the film’s ending, while radically shifting locales, reinforces how the menial jobs that immigrants are given in picaresque European cities function as a form of dehumanization that isn’t even worth the very little money received in return. Both the work that Issa is forced into and the occasional flashes of kindness shown to him by others should prompt viewers to re-examine their own attitudes towards those that are often portrayed in the media as threats to national stability, but are in fact everyday people just doing what they have to in order to survive and thrive.