The Last Roll-Call: A dusty, sweaty drama about a dad with a bad job

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you should only watch this if you're into old-school Italian films or you just like seeing how movies used to handle guilt and patriotism back in the thirties.

If you're looking for a fast-paced action flick, you're going to hate this. It’s slow, it’s dusty, and people talk a lot about things that happened off-camera.

But for someone who likes a character study that feels a bit grimy, it’s actually kind of interesting. It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere in Le ravin sans fond, though maybe a bit more grounded in reality.

The main guy is a proprietor of a bar in Djibouti. It’s a squalid place, and you can almost smell the stale drinks and the heat coming off the screen. 🍺

He’s played by Camillo Pilotto, who has this face that looks like it was carved out of an old tree. He’s not a good guy when we meet him.

He’s selling guns to the Ethiopians. Specifically, the ones fighting his own country, Italy.

It’s a pretty bold setup for a movie made in 1936. You keep waiting for the movie to punish him immediately, but it takes its time. ⏳

The bar scenes are probably the best part of the whole thing. There is this one extra in the background who just stares at a glass for like three minutes.

I found myself wondering if he was actually an actor or just some guy they found on the street. It makes the world feel real in a way that polished movies don't. 🏜️

The turning point

Then his son shows up. His long-lost son who is now a soldier on the Fascist front.

It’s one of those movie coincidences that feels a bit too perfect, but it works because of the look on Pilotto’s face. He looks like he’s just swallowed a bag of nails.

The movie stops being about business and starts being about what it means to be a father. Or maybe what it means to be a traitor who finally realizes he has something to lose.

I noticed the sound quality gets a bit rough during the big emotional reunion. It’s kind of charming, in a way, like the movie itself is struggling to hold it together. 🎥

The son, Roberto Villa, plays it very straight. He’s all shiny and patriotic, which creates a weird contrast with his dad’s sweaty, cynical vibe.

It’s not as surreal as something like Le spectre vert, but the family dynamic feels just as haunted.

There’s a scene where they are just sitting across from each other and the silence goes on for a long time. It felt like the director forgot to yell cut, but I actually liked it.

It gave me time to look at the set design, which is surprisingly detailed for a movie this old. There are all these little trinkets on the walls of the bar that tell a story of their own.

The Patriotism Problem

Since this is a 1936 Italian film, you have to expect a certain amount of "Yay, Italy!" energy. It gets a bit thick toward the end. 🇮🇹

The shift from selfish profit to patriotism feels a little rushed. One minute he’s counting his money, and the next he’s basically a new man.

I wish we saw more of that internal struggle. It feels like a few pages of the script might have been skipped to get to the big finale.

Still, the outdoor shots are impressive. They really captured the scale of the desert and how small these people look against the sand dunes.

It’s much more expansive than the cramped feeling you get in The Studio Murder Mystery.

The music is also extremely loud at points. It’s that old-school orchestral stuff that tries to tell you exactly how to feel every second. 🎺

Sometimes I just wanted it to quiet down so I could hear the wind in the background.

• The Good: Camillo Pilotto’s acting is top-notch. The bar feels like a real place you'd never want to visit.
• The Bad: The pacing drags in the middle. The ending feels a bit like a recruitment poster.
• The Weird: There is a dog in one scene that seems very confused about where it is supposed to go.

I don't think I'd watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it once. It’s a strange little window into a very specific time and place.

If you've seen La fin du monde, you'll recognize that same kind of heavy, dramatic weight they used to put on everything back then.

It's not a masterpiece, but it’s human. And sometimes that’s enough when you’re digging through the archives.

Just make sure you have some water nearby. Watching all that sand makes you thirsty. 🥤