Besieged (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Besieged (Italian title: L'assedio) is a 1998 film by Bernardo Bertolucci starring Thandiwe Newton and David Thewlis. The film is based on the short story "The Siege" by James Lasdun and was supposed to be a 60-minute teleplay until Bertolucci chose to expand it.
Plot
The film opens in an unnamed African town where Shandurai (Thandiwe Newton) watches with distress as a school teacher is taken away by police.
In Rome, Shandurai is now a housemaid for Jason Kinsky (David Thewlis), an eccentric English pianist and composer, and is also a promising medical student. Kinsky is in love with Shandurai, sending gifts down to her room via the dumbwaiter. One gift is a ring, which leads to an impassioned marriage proposal, which she rejects. Asked how he could make her love him, she shouts, “Get my husband out of jail!” Only then does Kinsky realize that Shandurai is married.
Shandurai notices a tapestry and some figurines she had dusted are now missing. Later, Kinsky begins composing using Shandurai, vacuuming nearby, as his muse. Hearing his piano riffs, she begins to fall in love herself.
Kinsky bargains with an African priest over an undisclosed transaction. Coming home from the school, Shandurai looks up to see Kinsky's piano being lowered into a truck; he has sold it. From a letter, she discovers that Kinsky has raised the money to secure her husband's release. He is coming to Rome. The night before his arrival, Shandurai unbuttons the sleeping Kinsky's shirt and curls up with him in bed. Morning arrives with her husband ringing the doorbell below. Shandurai at first doesn't react. Then she gets up, and the film ends with her husband still waiting by the door.
Cast
- Thandiwe Newton as Shandurai (credited as Thandie Newton)
- David Thewlis as Jason Kinsky
- Claudio Santamaria as Agostino
- John C. Ojwang as Singer
- Massimo De Rossi as Patient
- Cyril Nri as Priest
