The Book of Vision

Carlo Hintermann : 2020

Eva, a promising young doctor, leaves her brilliant career to study History of Medicine in a remote university. Now is the time for her to call everything into question: her nature, her body, her illness, and her sealed fate. Johan Anmuth is an 18th century Prussian physician in perpetual conflict between the rise of rationalism and ancient forms of animism. "Book of Vision" is a manuscript that sweeps these two existences up, blending them into a never-ending vortex. Far from a proper scientific text, the Book contains the hopes, fears, and dreams of more than 1800 patients. The patients' spirits still wander through the pages. The book hides a mystery. Life and death are both part of a continuous flow. Nothing expires in its time. Only what you desire is real, not merely what happens. Carlo Hintermann's first fiction feature premiered as the opening film at Venice International Film Critics' Week 2020.

Lacci

Daniele Luchetti : 2020
The Ties

Naples, early 1980s. The marriage between Aldo and Vanda begins to break down when Aldo falls in love with young Lidia. Thirty years later, Aldo and Vanda are still married. A mystery about feelings, a story of loyalty and faithlessness, of resentment and shame. Betrayal, pain, a secret box, a home laid waste, a cat, the voice of people in love and that of people out of love. Adapted from the novel by Domenico Starnone, Daniele Luchetti's feature premiered out of competition as the opening film at Venice International Film Festival 2020.

Le Grand Viveur

Perla Sardella : 2020

Mario Lorenzini is a mystery of cinema. Dying suddenly, he left behind him an unprecedented and secret cinematographic body of work, filmed in Super 8, chronicling the daily life of an Italian village. He was a farmer, a hunter, and a film buff. He lived in Rimasco, a small community in the Piedmont mountains. At the end of the 1960s, Lorenzini bought a Super 8 camera and became an amateur filmmaker. A man of passion, a great pleasure-seeker, he then dedicated himself to filmmaking. He filmed the day to day of mountain-dwelling life, his neighbours, the slaughter of pigs, the passing of the seasons, and the scenery of a territory that subtly changes with every take. Perla Sardella's documentary of Lorenzini's archives premiered in competition at Visions du Réel 2020.

Darkness

Emanuela Rossi : 2019
Buio

Stella, a 17-year-old, and her younger sisters, Luce and Aria, are locked inside their secluded, dark mansion with bars on the windows. Out there the Apocalypse: two thirds of humanity is dead since sunlight has become too strong and men only can go outside, women can't stand it. Their claustrophobic life is brightened up by special games, such as the Air party or the picnic by the lake. These games, usually led by Stella, are aimed at reimagining the past they shared with their late mother. But their father gets angry – he would like them to completely erase the past. Things break down when Luce, the second daughter, who is by now a teenager, starts asking about the outside. After an incident where Aria leaves the house and Stella goes to fetch her, and after a couple of days of the father's continuous absence, Stella decides to go out into the world. As she finds out, the stories the father has been telling are a far cry from the truth. Emanuela Rossi's feature debut premiered in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2019.

Nour

Maurizio Zaccaro : 2019

As two women scroll through their holiday photos at dawn aboard a boat, they hear cries that sound like they're coming from people in the sea. Little by little, they make them out in the water. They're immigrants whose boat has sunk in the Lampedusa waters. Nour is ten years old and she crossed the Mediterranean by herself to reach Europe. What is she doing on her own in Lampedusa, among the survivors of a shipwreck? Pietro Bartolo, the doctor on the island, takes care of her and, step by step, he tries to reconstruct not only the girl's past, but also her present and a new future. Maurizio Zaccaro's feature premiered in the Festa Mobile section at Torino Film Festival 2019.

The Gift

Giuliano Fratini : 2019
Il Dono

It is 1983. Andrei Tarkovsky's permit to work abroad has expired and he is legally required to return home. He is in Italy, shooting the film Nostalgia. He understands from the messages of some friends and colleagues that the Soviet Union is not awaiting him with open arms. His life there will be even tougher than before. So he decides to break with Soviet authorities and, a year before the Milan Conference during which he will publicly announce his decision, he leaves his friends who are hosting him in Rome and goes into hiding. The documentary traces the reasons why Tarkovsky decided to give up the life he had led until then and hide in an unknown location. Even there, he cannot feel safe. The Soviets with their apparatus do not let their citizens go that easily. The documentary features archival recordings and interviews with witnesses to those events, including Krzysztof Zanussi and Giuseppe Lanci. Giuliano Fratini's first full-length documentary premiered at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2019, and had its European premiere in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival 2019.

Stories from the Chestnut Woods

Gregor Božič : 2019
Zgodbe iz kostanjevih gozdov

In a decaying forest on the Yugoslav-Italian border in the years after World War II, a stingy, old carpenter and a lonely, young chestnut seller share imaginative memories of the past as they weigh fateful decisions for the future. Stubborn in his old age, Mario, the Stingy Carpenter, is known for his unflappable competitive nature and for his preoccupations with income. He fails to notice his wife's descent into illness, one among several missed opportunities to care for his loved ones. Mario tries to impart his hard-gained wisdom to Marta, the Last Chestnut Seller, who has been left to tend the chestnut groves after her husband's departure. In their decaying surroundings, these lonely souls share fond memories – transformed into imaginative tales – and melancholic contemplations of their futures. Should they remain, haunted by a life that was, or does another path call: joining countless others on the rickety cart to a world unknown? Gregor Božič's feature debut premiered in the Discovery section at Toronto International Film Festival 2019.

Simple Women

Chiara Malta : 2019

On Christmas Day 1989, young Federica suffers her first epileptic seizure while she's watching the trial and execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena on television with her family. Since childhood, her only passion was cinema, and one film in particular played an important role: Hal Hartley's 'Simple Men', in which Romanian actor Elina Löwensohn has an onscreen seizure. For Federica, it was a critical moment of reflection and connection. Years later, Federica has the opportunity to make a film in Bucharest about the life of her long-time icon. But the real Elina is much different from the one in Federica's imagination and, very quickly, the true characters of both the actor and the director are revealed. Seeing through a new lens, Federica's mind becomes clouded and her ideas for the film less clear. Mid-production, she has a fit of epilepsy, and, with her vision blurred, the faint lines between life and art fade entirely. Chiara Malta's fiction feature debut premiered in the Discovery section at Toronto International Film Festival 2019.

Shelter: Farewell to Eden

Enrico Masi : 2019

Pepsi is a transgender woman looking for a stable job as a caregiver. As a former member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front active in an island of southern Philippines, she escaped from her country to work as a nurse for over 10 years in Gaddafi's Libya. Because of gender discrimination, she was forced to join the flow of refugees. Then, she faced European institutions as an asylum seeker. It was in the city of Bologna, Italy, where she obtained the first acknowledgement of her status. However, she could not stop there. Her journey continued towards France, crossing the dangerous "pass of death" on the heights of Ventimiglia. With the strength of her experience in the wild mountains of Mindanao she reached Paris. There, she acquired a second identity and found underground work offering massages, sharing interstitial spaces among the harsh architectures of the metropolis. Her voice-over tale is a post-colonial parable, in which European geography mingles with an intimate emotional drama. Her wander recalls the ancient myth of Europa, according to which a young woman was kidnapped and raped by Jupiter, in the shape of a bull. He took her to an island in the Mediterranean from which she gave the name to the continent. 16mm film, analogue video and grainy iPhone footage contribute to a phantom image of life in the urban underground. A strategic and militant response to society's aggressive insistence that everything and everyone can be defined according to the norms of the majority. Enrico Masi's documentary premiered at Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2019, and had its UK premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019.

The Souvenir

Joanna Hogg : 2019

England; the early 1980s. Young film student Julie wants to use her camera to better understand the world. This shy woman is well aware of her privileged social position and, as she explains, sees her Super 8 camera as a way to break out of her own little bubble. She thinks she is mediocre, but the photos and moving images that flow into the film bear witness to her special gaze. In an unassuming, almost documentary approach, we are introduced to Julie's student milieu, into which Anthony unexpectedly enters. He is older and more distinguished. He harbours a secret that Julie only uncovers later, but that then dramatically changes everything. Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2019, and had its European premiere in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Last to See Them

Sara Summa : 2019
Gli ultimi a vederli vivere

The Durati family lead an idyllic, secluded life in the south of Italy, in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by olive groves. Their daily routines are not particularly spectacular, although the eldest daughter is soon to be married and each of the family members is preparing for the wedding in their own way. It's the younger daughter, Dora, who takes on most of the tasks. She sews the dresses for the bridesmaids, and does the shopping and the cooking. Her mother wanders around the house like a ghost, complaining of a headache, her father is busy dealing with an insurance agent with whom he took out life insurance, and her brother is making a wooden shrine intended as a wedding present. Through the eyes of each of the characters, the events are repeated from different perspectives, and at certain moments, a few new details emerge as the story progresses. The film makes no secret of the fact that father Enzo, mother Alice, daughter Dora and son Matteo will not survive the coming day. The knowledge of their imminent demise changes how the viewer sees their everyday actions, their plans both big and small. The fragility of life shines through and it almost feels like everything is slowing down. The smallest events are lent greater significance, making the inescapable end appear like a trancelike countdown. By concentrating so radically on the "before", the story of a brutal crime is told in an entirely unique way. It is much more a tender tale of life than one of death. We're the last to see them living. Sara Summa's feature debut premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Il bene mio

Pippo Mezzapesa : 2018
My Own Good

The last remaining inhabitant of Provvidenza, a village destroyed by an earthquake, Elia refuses to go along with the rest of the community, which has resettled in Nuova Provvidenza and put the past behind them. To Elia, his town is still alive, and thanks to the help of an old friend, Gesualdo, he strains to keep its memory alive as well. When the mayor orders him to abandon Provvidenza, Elia seems to be on the point of pulling up stakes, when he suddenly senses a strange presence. In fact, a young woman, Noor, is hiding in the rubble of the school, where Elia's wife had lost her life. Noor is on the run, and this chance encounter, coupled with Elia's own desire as keeper of the flame for Provvidenza, brings him up against a decision from which there is no going back. Pippo Mezzapesa's feature premiered as a Special Event screening at Venice Days 2018.

Capri-Revolution

Mario Martone : 2018

It is 1914 and Italy is about to go to war. A commune of young Northern Europeans has found the ideal place for their exploration of life and art on the island of Capri. But the island has its own powerful identity, in the person of a young woman, a goatherd named Lucia. The film tells the story of the encounter between Lucia, the commune led by Seybu and the young village doctor. It also speaks of an island unique in the world, whose Dolomite cliffs plunge into the waters of the Mediterranean, and which at the start of the 20th century acted like a magnet for all those driven by ideals of liberty and progress, such as the Russians whom Maxim Gorky, in exile on Capri, was preparing for the revolution. Mario Martone's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

L'amica geniale

Saverio Costanzo : 2018
My Brilliant Friend

When the most important friend of her life appears to have vanished without a trace, Elena Greco, an elderly woman who lives in a house filled with books, turns on her computer and starts to write the story of herself and Lila, the story of a friendship born at elementary school in the 1950s. Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, the account that follows covers more than sixty years of life and attempts to unveil the mystery of Lila, Elena's brilliant friend, at once her best friend and worst enemy. Saverio Costanzo's TV drama was shown as a Special Screening, out of competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

Rainbow – A Private Affair

Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani : 2017
Una questione privata

Milton, a member of the resistance, chances upon an abandoned villa nestling in the hills of Piedmont where, as a student, he was in love with the beautiful Fulvia. He has his suspicions that she was more inclined towards his friend Giorgio, now a captured member of the same partisan division. In order to find out the truth from Giorgio himself, Milton sets off to find him, travelling through a region where the last battles are being staged before the liberation of Italy. His perilous journey, which sees him caught in the lines of fire between partisan units, fleeing German soldiers and rampaging Italian Fascists, increasingly becomes an exploration into his own consciousness as he ultimately comprehends the senseless barbarity of war. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2017.

Lazzaro felice

Alice Rohrwacher : 2018
Happy as Lazzaro

This is the tale of a meeting between Lazzaro, a young peasant so good that he is often mistaken for simple-minded, and Tancredi, a young nobleman cursed by his imagination. Life in their isolated pastoral village Inviolata is dominated by the terrible Marchesa Alfonsina de Luna, the queen of cigarettes. A loyal bond is sealed when Tancredi asks Lazzaro to help him orchestrate his own kidnapping. This strange and improbable alliance is a revelation for Lazzaro. A friendship so precious that it will travel in time and transport Lazzaro in search of Tancredi. His first time in the big city, Lazzaro is like a fragment of the past lost in the modern world. Lazzaro Felice is the story of a lesser sanctity; the sanctity of living in this world without thinking ill of anyone and simply believing in human beings. Because another way was possible, the way of goodness, which men have always ignored but which always reappears to question them. Like something that might have been but that we've never ever wanted. Alice Rohrwacher's feature was winner of the Award for Best Screenplay when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Daughter of Mine

Laura Bispuri : 2018
Figlia mia

Ten-year-old Vittoria is growing up in a Sardinian village untouched by tourism. One day at a rodeo she meets the impetuous Angelica, who is completely different to her own caring mother Tina. Vittoria does not suspect that the two women are connected by a secret. Tina has been visiting Angelica for a long time on the run-down farm where Angelica lives a happy-go-lucky life with some old horses and a faithful dog. Tina is not at all happy about Angelica and her daughter Vittoria getting to know each other. In debt, Angelica decides to move to the mainland. Relieved, Tina offers her financial support, but she cannot prevent further encounters between the two. Captivated by this fearless, independent woman, Vittoria begins rediscovering the island with her. Laura Bispuri's second feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

After the War

Annarita Zambrano : 2017
Dopo la guerra

Bologna, 2002. The opposition to the Labour Law explodes in universities. The murder of a judge reopens old political wounds between Italy and France. Marco, a former left-wing activist, sentenced for murder and exiled in France for 20 years, thanks to the Mitterrand doctrine, is accused of having ordered the attack. The Italian government requests his extradition. Discovering that he no longer has political asylum, he is forced to flee with Viola, his 16-year-old daughter. His life will change forever, as well as his family's in Italy who has to pay for Marco's past faults. Annarita Zambrano's feature premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2017.

Sicilian Ghost Story

Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza : 2017

In a little Sicilian village on the edge of a forest, Giuseppe, a boy of 13, vanishes. Luna, his classmate who's in love with him, refuses to accept his mysterious disappearance. She rebels against the silence and complicity surrounding her. To find him, she descends into the dark world which has swallowed him up and which has a lake as its mysterious entrance. Only their indestructible love will be able to bring her back. Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza's second feature premiered as a Special Screening at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2017.

A Ciambra

Jonas Carpignano : 2017

In A Ciambra, a small Romani community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the region's factions – the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere, learning the necessary skills for life on the streets of their hometown. When Cosimo disappears and things start to go wrong, Pio sets out to prove he's ready to step into his big brother's shoes but soon finds himself faced with an impossible decision that will show if he is truly ready to become a man. Jonas Carpignano's second feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2017.