Petra Volpe's "Frank & Louis" is a fresh take on the prison genre. In her English-language debut, the Swiss writer-director turns her attention to how prisons cope with aging populations. The story is based on California's "Gold Coats" program, where minimally trained inmates care for fellow prisoners with memory loss. Tough and thoughtful, the film avoids emotional manipulation and is carried by strong performances throughout.
Its emotional weight rests on the two men at its center. Louis, a longtime prisoner once feared for his volatility, is now unmoored by Alzheimer's. He resists help and vacillates between lucidity, confusion, and violence. Frank, serving time for murder, volunteers to be his caretaker, though his motive isn't purely altruistic. With a parole hearing approaching, Frank figures the role will burnish his image.
As the film unfolds, the relationship deepens in small, hard-won increments. Volpe never lets us settle into easy sentimentality. She asks tough questions about crime and punishment, redemption and healing. Julian, caretaker to a particularly challenging prisoner, voices the film’s central one: "Is it right to go on punishing a man for crimes he no longer remembers?"
The chemistry between Kingsley Ben-Adir (who played Malcolm X in “One Night in Miami”) and Rob Morgan (who played Teddy Oglethorpe in “Don't Look Up”) gives the film its power. The rapper Residente gives a standout performance as the caretaker who helps Frank learn to handle a difficult position.
Volpe's sure hand coaxes terrific performances and avoids any hint of melodrama. Her scenes have a compositional formality, heightened by Judith Kaufmann's cinematography, where light and shadow echo the film's moral dilemmas and confined spaces. The quiet but insistent score is present in nearly every scene, enhancing the mood without intruding.
"Frank & Louis" won the Audience Award (Prix du Public) at the Locarno Film Festival in August and will be released in Europe this fall. Locally, you can catch it Sunday, Oct. 25 at 4 p.m. at the inaugural Park City Film Festival, which runs October 23-25.
Tickets for this and the festival's other highly curated films are available at ParkCityFilmFestival.org.
