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After seeing ‘Rumba‘ at ZFF, my first thought was that this film would make Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin altogether… laughing, thinking, crying or even, Latino dancing.

Luis Bunuel would probably be jealous on the screenplay, Dziga Vertov ought to still their colours, Eugene Ionesco re-writing again and again his plays, while the Marx Brothers might think to take break for a while…

Rumba is a French-Belgium co-production, directed by the collective of three lucid theatre and circus creators; Fiona Gordon (Canada), Dominique Abel (Belgium) and Bruno Romy (Normandy). They‘ve met during the 90’s in Normandy at some theatre tour and than the trio started to collaborate through numerous projectz in theatre, video and film. Rumba is their second feature film, made in the same style as their ‘first-born’ L’iceberg (2005). (here is an interesting interview with Fiona&Dominique&Bruno)

Photo: Sebastien Dolidon (c)

So, what’s film Rumba about?

Well, Rumba is made in maniere de Jacques Tati combined with the silent movie atmosphere and mime…

Two main characters are Dom and Fiona, who happily live in the rural part of Belgium.

Fiona is English teacher and Dom is teacher of physical education, both working in the same primary school. When the ring ticks for the end of class and the beginning of the weekend, they start with their real carriers: competing in Latin American dancing. Weekends are reserved for regional dance competitions and awards, because Fiona and Dom rock in Rumba.

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Their house abounds in trophies gained at many championships. One night, after the glorious winning, on their way home they crash their car to avoid hitting a would-be suicide…

Fiona loses her leg and Dom his memory. After a while, the couple starts to live and work again… situations are hilarious and absurd, especially as the couple is trying to integrate like nothing happened, although their dancing days are over.

When Fiona returns to her classroom on a crutch, kids are happy the same as she is, but then the dramaturgy grows… because Fiona is trying to balance the briefcase and crutches without anybodies help… she ends up falling out of an opened window…

Meanwhile, Dom is also back in school… not noticing that his ‘training’ has changed a little bit: kids are running with him through the whole city having short breaks at pubs, drinking bear to get stronger and faster…

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OK, I’m not going to tell you everything about the movie, just one scene, pleeeease…

The school colleagues decide to give a wooden leg to Fiona… great solution, but… during a romantic evening after the barbecue in their backyard, over an open fire the wooden leg catches fire… the situation is unbelievable, because Dom, while trying to stop the fire, somehow manages to burn the whole house down…

This is not the end; the best parts of the film are to come… in cinema…