Alan in Belfast: Latina, Latina – an unhurried reading of a father’s memoir of a fascist train tour (DocsIreland in Queen’s Film Theatre on Thursday 26 June) #docsireland7

A phone call from Berlin forces an Irish geology lecturer working in Bolzano, Italy to travel to Berlin. She’s the next of kin for her estranged father who is unconscious in hospital after a fall. She spends the night alone in his apartment, reading from his detailed diaries, learning about his past, his interests, his friendships, and his travels across Italy.

What follows over 84 minutes is almost an illustrated novella, a radio play with light visualisation, a work of art with an accompanying verbal script. Latina, Latina has been labelled as a hybrid-documentary, though feels – particularly with the somewhat tragic ending – like it would more comfortably reside in the fictional side of the movie library classification system.

Director Adrian Duncan takes his audience on a trip down through Italy, with the woman’s father travelling with his friend Carlo, noticing sculptures and historical artefacts that celebrated the ideas of Mussolini’s Italy. A fascist bus tour – by train – if you like to reach the coastal city of Latina. And a tale of friendship.

Wendy Erskine leisurely narrates the travelogue diary entries without gratuitous emotion. Her voicing of the woman’s inner thoughts and memories have a little more expression, but are still unhurried as if sleepy after the journey to Berlin. The pacing is so relaxed that if this was a car, it would stall. The father studies architecture. The daughter’s interest lies in the rocks from which the buildings were constructed. Will her dive into his past encourage her to reconnect with her absent father.

The cinematography slowly pans across objects: it’s almost as if the audience are reaching out to touch them, to feel the texture of pages and rocks and textiles. The colour palette is dominated by shades of concrete grey with sporadic pastel bursts. Outdoors, the camera’s eye is caught by brickwork and statues. On the few occasions the camera stops and fixes its gaze, drops of rain will keep some movement in the frame. The images complement the narration. Periodically the geologist will appear on screen, played by Sabrina Mandanici.

Latina, Latina is a tale of melancholy, even before the sorrow hits. It is being screened at 20:15 on Thursday 26 June in Queen’s Film Theatre, followed by a Q&A with writer/director Adrian Duncan, as part as part of the Docs Ireland festival of international documentary film which runs until Sunday 29 June.