I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of John Turturro‘s Passione, which is screening at TIFF in the Special Presentations category, but I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised by this engaging, colorful, music-drenched journey into the musical culture of Naples.

The documentary is about as non-traditional structurally as one could imagine (and I mean that in a good way). Turturro uses stunning musical numbers — think of them as very artsy, smart music videos of Napoli musical history — to explore the complex city’s rich musical culture. If you are completely ignorant of Naples, as I pretty much am, the film is a crash course in a fascinating culture overflowing with passion.

Turturro uses a wide array of musical performances in the film; past and contemporary artists including Sergio Bruni, Massimo Ranieri and Renata Carasonni (representing the Masters) and M’Barka Ben Taleb and James Senese (on-hand for the contemporaries), interspersed with regular folks singing on the streets (and a lot of them, even, have good voices … I was certainly impressed).

The musical numbers are beautifully staged; the music ranges from deeply moving love songs to humorous ditties to deeply political folk songs, and all of it reflects a people and a place that’s diverse for being occupied by so many cultures, and yet unique in its own personality.

A couple of the songs were real standouts for me (and I’m sorry I don’t have the titles so you can go look them up): One of the first songs in the film has two artists, a man and a woman, singing passionately about love and loss as they circle each other, even embrace while singing; another love song, we were told, was written by the artist to his wife, who left him after years of infidelity. I was also impressed by artist James Senese, so much so that I looked him up and bought some of his music for my iPod after the screening.

The film opens with a trio of aging recorded music vets who guide us through the colorful history of Napoli music as they argue, talk over and cajole each other and share with us their vast base of knowledge.

Also along to guide us — and provide some levity when needed — is Turturro, whose love and passion for the Italian culture is evident in every frame of the film. Turturro, who’s always a joy to watch on-screen, uses the city itself as his canvas, showing us the bedrooms, the alleyways, the public squares, the people, and the architecture to add texture to these stories told through song.

Passione is a love letter to a culture, a poetic journey through a history that includes the children fathered by American vets during the occupation following the Second World War, a people and a culture captured in the microcosm of music, all interwoven with the beauty of Naples as a city, both in its wealth and its poverty.

Turturro captures the essence of a culture in the same way that the songs themselves do — by sharing with us how the Napoli people live their lives, what values they hold dear, the way they live, love, fight and make love. It’s a lovely, original, fascinating film with a very arthouse feel, and richly satisfying to watch, particularly if you, as I, love music.