Imperium: Living with a Failed Core

Indigo Parer’s Imperium examines the multifaceted expression of being a family bound by bitterness, resentment, and trauma going back generations. Running to twenty minutes, the film unravels its subjects on two distinct threads that both belie the complexity of familial coexistence and illuminate the gendered expression of festering tensions.

Julio (Sal Galofaro) and Angela (Francesca Arena) are parents to two adult sons, Lucio (Josh Massarotti) and Vince (Tom Arcaro) in 1980s Victoria. Bitterness and volatility are in the very air. The two or so scenes in which the husband and wife share space vary between being cold or ready to spark into explosive clashes. In their turn, the brothers’ individual relationships with their father are emphasised over their own bond. They do not talk to each other so much as they speak aloud of—if not of their discontent—a shared hope of prosperity.

Julio is at the centre of the quiet tragedy that the family lives with. It is his figure on which the film opens, and it is the sound relaying the outcome of his obstinate efforts that closes it. His failures and wounds cast their long shadows on the family, each suffering in the order of time they have lived with Julio. It is why, unlike his mother and older brother, Vince’s opposition to Julio stems from a still intact taste for life when he walks away from his father’s work in favour of football practice.

Cinematography develops generational history of meagre fortunes into the look of the film with a wide aspect ratio, framing Julio or Angela in the thick of their solitary labour. When they are not out in the bleak blue open, the characters share just enough light between them to distinguish one face from another. 

In a particularly powerful scene, the film intercuts between Angela working alone at home and Julio out in the field with his sons, a breakdown coming in unannounced but evidently long expected. The effect of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” on the radio, spread across both locations, is exquisite in illustrating, among other things, the fault lines of the marriage. Arena is unforgettable, portraying Angela as simultaneously individual and the latest in a line of many. 

Imperium, covering a short span of time, traces the markers of a long history through its characters. The film does not particularly vilify anyone, only the circumstances that make them. This translates to an intimate approach in characterizing Julio, balancing flawed stoicism with pathos. It also means that when he is shown at his oppressive worst, the film replaces his status as a character with his effect as a presence—face out of frame, only his looming figure visible, Julio is the family’s circumstances in action.

Watch Imperium Short Film Trailer