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THE ITALIAN PRESENCE AT THE 28TH
PDF Of Italian Cinema Presence Programe HERE
Despite the fact that the number of films produced by Italian companies has decreased to less than 70 per year, the last 12 months have presented an interesting showcase of new talent and confirms the talents of a number of established film directors. Italian productions have garnered a 40% share of the local market, thanks to a couple of well-received comedies and some international hits. The opening of the Rome Film Festival might have endangered the supremacy of the Venice Film Festival but it has also exposed many new Italian films to the attention of local audiences in the profitable winter season. The Italian independent producer's working attitude is now part and parcel of European cultural strategies and subsidies. Setting up a co-production often represents the best way to finalise a budget. The Italian Ministry of Arts and Culture has played, and continues to play, a pivotal role in facilitating International connections and implementing co-production treaties. In 2005, Italy became the first European country to sign a co-production treaty with South Africa . It has been a successful effort. Films such as Hotel Rwanda, Country Of My Skull and Goodbye Bafana were realised on the principles based on this co-production treaty.
Delegations of Italian filmmakers attended in recent years many South African film festival and markets, including Sithengi and the Durban International Film Festival. At the same time, retrospectives of South African Cinema have been hosted by Venice film festival in 2005 and other Italian film festivals. A full presentation of the most recent South African long and short films is scheduled for June 2007 in Rome and other Italian cities. The Italian-South African relationship is now a very stable one and will hopefully generate some interesting, new products.
The 28th Durban International Film Festival's focus on Italy is a good occasion to strengthen this relationship. The five selected films have drawn international attention and acknowledgement and represent a meaningful sample of contemporary Italian Independent Film Production. The new Italian filmmakers aim to renew Italian Cinema and face the market, but they want also to preserve their own identity and specific language. It's an exciting challenge, and a battle worth fighting in the name and honour of the old masters of the Italian Cinema like Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti and Sergio Leone…
Antonio Falduto
President, Controluce
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ITALIAN FILMS AT DIFF 2007
BILLO , IL GRAND DAKHAAR
d. Laura Muscardin , Italy /Senegal 2006
28 Ekhaya 18h00; 01 Suncoast 16h00
Billo is a young Senegalese man who smuggles himself to Italy . He has dreams of being a fashion designer and selling his garments to the couture market but ends up, like so many other immigrants, illegally selling CDs and DVDs. Bilo gets arrested and is then charged with being an Islamic terrorist. He is subsequently released and gets a chance to work in the fashion industry and fall in love. But a life and a wife are waiting for him back in Dakar … Filmmaker in attendance
Italian and Wolof with English subtitles, 35mm, 110 min
COVER BOY ... THE FINAL REVOLUTION
d. Carmine Amoroso , Italy 2006
29 Musgrave 22h15; 30 Nouveau 18h30
Ioan, a young Romanian, arrives in Rome as an illegal immigrant, and is “discovered” by a photograper who thinks that there is something grittily authentic about his looks. The film explores the relationship between Ioan and Michele, a janitor in Rome 's main train station who sublets his apartment to him. Michele is a legal immigrant from the South of Italy but his outsider status forms a binding link between the two men. As Amoroso examines the somewhat homoerotic relationship, wider social and political territory is also explored. Filmmaker in attendance.
Italian with English subtitles, 35mm, 97 min
ME, THE OTHER (IO, L'ALTRO)
d. Mohsen Melliti, Italy 2007
24 Suncoast 14h00; 30 Musgrave 20h00
Giuseppe, an Italian and Youssef, a Moroccan, work on a fishing boat together in Italian waters. They have done so for years and their relationship is much like that of brothers. But when an act of terror is committed by someone with the same name as Youssef, the relationship deteriorates. Wellacted and tightly directed, Me, the Other crosses the divide between drama and thriller with ease. While all of the action takes place within the confines of their boat, the film canvas moves far beyond the sea's horizon. Filmmaker in attendance.
Italian with English subtitles, 35mm, 72 min
RED LIKE THE SKY (ROSSO COME IL CIELO)
d. Cristiano Bortone, Italy 2005
24 Suncoast 12h00; 30 Musgrave 18h00
Based on the true story of Mirco Mencacci, one of the most gifted Italian sound editors working today, Red Like the Sky is an Italian tribute to cinema which recalls Cinema Paradiso , both in its deep love of fi lm and its portrait of youth and the inevitabilities of growing up. The film starts with Mirco as a lively 10- year-old who is crazy about the movies. One day, while Mirco is playing with an old rifle, he shoots himself in the head. He survives, but loses his vision. Not permitted to attend public school, he is forced to attend a school for the blind. Here he discovers an old tape recorder and a splicing machine, which changes his life forever.
Italian with English subtitles, 35mm, 96 min
SHELTER (RIPARO)
d. Marco Simon Puccioni, Italy/France 2007
28 Nouveau 20h00; 01 Sneddon 12h00
While cross-cultural experience is a common theme in contemporary cinema, Shelter explores these themes with substance and complexity. Anna is a wealthy middle-class 35-year old woman who owns, together with her mother and her brother, a factory in the northeast of Italy . She lives with her lover, 25- year-old Mara, who works in the factory. Their relationship, already a little fraught by class conflict, is tested to its limit, when Anis, a young man from Morocco suddenly storms into their lives, after smuggling himself across the border in the boot of their car. Filmmaker in attendance
Italian with English subtitles, 35mm, 100 min |
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SCREENING SCHEDULE
ITALIAN FILMS
BILLO , IL GRAND DAKHAAR
28 June, Ekhaya, KwaMashu 18h00
1 July, Nu Metro Cinecentre, Suncoast 16h00
COVER BOY ... THE FINAL REVOLUTION
29 June, Ster Kinekor Musgrave 22h15
30 June, Cinema Nouveau Gateway 18h30
ME, THE OTHER (IO, L'ALTRO)
24 June, Nu Metro Cinecentre, Suncoast 14h00
30 June, Ster Kinekor Musgrave 20h00
RED LIKE THE SKY (ROSSO COME IL CIELO)
24 June, Nu Metro Cinecentre, Suncoast 12h00
30 June, Ster Kinekor Musgrave 18h00
SHELTER (RIPARO)
28 June, Cinema Nouveau, Gateway 20h00
1 June, Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre 12h00 |
28th Durban International Film Festival : 20 June 1-July 2007
