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Cinema Italia Oggi 2019 - Italian Film Festival
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CINEMA ITALIA OGGI 2019
- The New Italian Cinema Film Festival
8-14 April 2019
Kino Pod Baranami
Kino Pod Baranami, the Italian Cultural Institute and Cinecittà Luce invite viewers to the next edition of CINEMA ITALIA OGGI - presentation of the new Italian cinema. Nine of the most interesting films from the Apennine Peninsula from the last year will appear on the screen.
The program of the CINEMA ITALIA OGGI review consists of nine award-winning films which have gained particular recognition among viewers and critics. Each of them tells a different story about Italy and Italians, sometimes contradictory to the common perception of the sunny south.
Francesca Mazzoleni That’s Life is a film about young, joyful and carefree people in Italy. This touching depiction of teenage emotions and feelings will awaken memories from the past and become the reminder of the times when it was only here and now that mattered. The present (in the company of marasmus and hopelessness) also dominates in the life of the main character of The Armadillo's Prophecy – an adaptation of a comic book by the famous cartoonist Zerocalcare – who, despite being twenty-seven, is still looking for his place on earth, with the help of an ironic armadillo. The film features Polish actress popular in Italy - Kasia Smutniak (Loro, Perfect Strangers).
Antonio and Paulo show much more decisiveness in Alessandro Genovesi's film My Big Gay Italian Wedding. Planning a wedding in a small town in the south of Italy, they take fate, and also love, into their own hands. They don't know, however, that Antonio's seemingly tolerant father has serious doubts about his son’s decision. The intergenerational conflict is also present among the members of the family gathered in There is No Place Like Home by Gabriele Muccino, who have to extend their stay on a secluded island due to a huge storm. In the case of Arturo, who has been imprisoned for a bar fight in Francesco Falaschi's As Needed, not the weather, but a series of bad decisions are to blame. However, things will take an unexpected turn when the punishment will lead the man to a unique friendship with an autistic boy with a passion for cooking.
Isabella, a great star of 80's music and the main heroine of the film We'll be young and beautiful, is passionate about her career. Unfortunately, more than twenty years later, when a woman is still singing the same songs in a small-town bar, her fascination with music vanishes completely. It was replaced by bitter disappointment, well known to the Alessandro, alcohol and gambling addict, who in Bonifacio Angius’ Wherever You Are will unexpectedly get a chance for love on the hospital corridor. A surprising turn of events will also change the fate of a film crew who want to make a feature in Armenia. When the original plans of the filmmakers from Simone Spada’s Hotel Gagarin are ruined by the war and the producer's escape, a particular and unexpected idea will save them from a failure. A sudden change will be also experienced by the heroine of Edoardo De Angelis’ The Vice of Hope, who will have to decide about her future in the dark world of human traffickers.
All films - with the exception of My Big Gay Italian Wedding - will be presented in the original version with Polish and English subtitles.
PROGRAM:
Monday, April 8
7.15 p.m. THE ARMADILLO'S PROPHECY | LA PROFEZIA DELL’ARMADILLO
dir. Emanuele Scaringi, Italy 2018, 99’
Tuesday, April 9
7.15 p.m. WE'LL BE YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL | SAREMO GIOVANI E BELLISSIMI
dir. Letizia Lamartire, Italy 2018, 92’
Wednesday, April 10
7.15 p.m. THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME | A CASA TUTTI BENE
dir. Gabriele Muccino, Italy 2018, 105’
Thursday, April 11
7.15 p.m. MY BIG GAY ITALIAN WEDDING | PUOI BACIARE LO SPOSO
dir. Alessandro Genovesi, Italy 2017, 98’
Friday, April 12
7.15 p.m. WHEREVER YOU ARE | OVUNQUE PROTEGGIMI
dir. Bonifacio Angius, Italy 2018, 94’
9.15 p.m. THE VICE OF HOPE | IL VIZIO DELLA SPERANZA
dir. Edoardo De Angelis, Italy2018, 95’
Saturday, April 13
7.15 p.m. AS NEEDED | QUANTO BASTA
dir. Francesco Falaschi, Italy 2018, 92’
9.15 p.m. THAT’S LIFE | SUCCEDE
dir. Francesca Mazzoleni, Italy 2018, 94’
Sunday, April 14
7.15 p.m. HOTEL GAGARIN | HOTEL GAGARIN
dir. Simone Spada, Italy 2017, 94’
TICKETS:
23 PLN (regular)
16 PLN (reduced)
Pass (9 movies): 108 PLN
To buy the Pass online, please contact: kasa@kinopodbaranami.pl
ABOUT THE MOVIES:
AS NEEDED | QUANTO BASTA
dir. Francesco Falaschi, Italy 2018, 92’
MFF Santa Barbara 2019: Screen Cuisine
Denver Film Festival 2018: Maria and Tommaso Maglione award Ajaccio
Italian Film Festival: Prix des Lycéens, Audience Award
Les rencontres du cinéma italien à Toulouse: Audience Award
Arturo, a 40-year old chef with a troubled past, is assigned to serve community services as a cooking teacher at the San Donato Institute for a group of guys with Asperger’s syndrome. Guido, 20-year old with a great talent and a lot of passion for cooking, is one of the pupils. In the meantime, Arturo is trying to convince his teacher Celso to open a restaurant together, but in vain. Just as Arturo was nearing end of his sentence and planning to move in the north to manage a restaurant owned by the shady fixer Corradi, he is invited by Anna, the institute’s psychologist, to accompany Guido as a mentor to a cooking talent show in Tuscany.
A touching comedy set in a world of Italian cuisine and Tuscan landscapes, in which skills are more important than disability. The supporting role was played by the award-winning Italian actor and singer, Alessandro Haber.
HOTEL GAGARIN | HOTEL GAGARIN
dir. Simone Spada, Italy 2017, 94’
David di Donatello 2019 – Italian Film Academy Awards - nomination: best directorial debut (Simone Spada)
Tiburon International Film Festival 2019
Festival International du Film de Mons 2019
Festival Cinema Italien Bastia 2019
ICFF - Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2018
Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt 2018
Five penniless Italians looking for their big break are sent to shoot a film in Armenia. But when they arrive there, a war breaks out and their crooked producer vanishes along with the money. Whilst abandoned in the Hotel Gagarin, secluded in the woods and buried under snow, they find an original and unexpected opportunity of unforgettable happiness.
The cast includes Giuseppe Battiston, known from the extremely popular Italian hit Perfect Strangers (2016). He have met his screen partner, Silvia D'Amico, before already on the set of the film The Last Prosecco (2017), which was presented last year as a part of Cinema Italia Oggi review.
MY BIG GAY ITALIAN WEDDING | PUOI BACIARE LO SPOSO
dir. Alessandro Genovesi, Italy 2017, 98’
Festival du Film Italien d'Ajaccio 2018: Prix Serge Leca
IFF in Seattle 2018: section Contemporary World Cinema
IFF in St. Louis 2018: International Spotlight
Antonio has finally found the love of his life, Paolo, with whom he lives happily in Berlin. Even if still not sure about their families’ reactions, they decide to get married in Italy, in the small village from where Antonio’s parents live. His mother, Anna, immediately accepts the guys’ intentions, as long as all traditions are respected: the future mother-in-law will have to attend the wedding, a famous wedding planner will be in charge of the organization and the marriage will be celebrated by her husband, Roberto, the mayor of the town, who has based all his politics on hospitality and integration. Joined by their bizarre friends Benedetta and Donato, the two ancées start to prepare the ceremony, but will Paolo’s conservative mother, Vincenza, attend the wedding? And, above all, will Roberto support his son’s choice?
A crazy comedy that conquered the hearts of viewers in Italy. The script is based on a well-known Broadway play of the same title. The parents were played by outstanding Italian actors: Monica Guerritore and Diego Abatantuono.
THAT’S LIFE | SUCCEDE
dir. Francesca Mazzoleni, Italy 2018, 94’
Italian Contemporary Film Week in Turkey 2018
Intense journal of the emotions and feelings of Margherita and her friends, four teenagers who share everything: dawn in Milan, a rooftop shelter, blue sneakers, a jeans shirt, music in their ears, school and their first kisses. But there’s more than that in this film: it’s a story of love and friendship set in that special moment of our life called adolescence, when every event is incredibly important, every emotion is absolute, where future and past don’t have a place because the present is all that matters.
The film is based on a book by Sofia Viscardi, a well-known Italian writer and YouTuber.
THE ARMADILLO'S PROPHECY | LA PROFEZIA DELL’ARMADILLO
dir. Emanuele Scaringi, Italy 2018, 99’
David di Donatello 2019 - Italian Film Academy Awards - nomination:
Best adapted script (Oscar Glioti, Pietro Martinelli, Valerio Mastandrea,
Zerocalcare)
IFF in Venice: participant in the „Horizons” Contest
The film tells the story of Zero, a twenty-seven year old guy who lives in a peripheral Roman suburb of Rebibbia, Tiburtina Valley, a small paradise squeezed between Tiburtina and Nomentana. Zero is an illustrator, though not having a stable income, he copes by tutoring French, timing how long people queue for at the airport and doing illustrations for independent punk bands. His life is very repetitive, days spent on public transport traveling across Rome to get to his various jobs, going to see his mother and coming back home, to find his critical conscience in the form of an armadillo, in flesh and blood, or rather, plates and soft tissue, with whom he has conversations bordering on paradoxical during which he updates him on what’s happening in the world.
A film adaptation of a bestselling graphic novel by an Italian artist Zerocalcare (Michele Rech), the creator of the famous autobiographical comic book Kobane Calling, which tells the story of his experience of volunteering during fights in north-western Kurdistan. The Italian cast is complemented by Kasia Smutniak, a Polish actress popular in Italy (Loro, Perfect Strangers).
THE VICE OF HOPE | IL VIZIO DELLA SPERANZA
dir. Edoardo De Angelis, Italy2018, 95’
David di Donatello 2019 - Italian Film Academy Awards - nominations:
Best Leading Actress (Pina Turco)
Best Supporting Actress (Marina Confalone)
Best Song "'A Speranza" (Enzo Avitabile)
RomeFilmFest 2018: Audience Award; Main Contest participant
Maria walks firmly, her hood up, her time flows along with the river she lives by. A hand-to-mouth life, without dreams nor desires, spent taking care of her mother and at the service of a merciless, bejeweled old lady. With her brave-eyed pitbull, she ferries pregnant women across the river, leading them to a painful, infernal fate. But hope will pay Maria a visit, in its most ancestral and powerful form, as miraculous as life itself, teaching her that staying human is the greatest of all revolutions.
The music for the film was composed by Enzo Avitabile, the author of the soundtrack to the award-winning film by Edoardo De Angelis Indivisible, presented in 2017 in the Cinema Italia Oggi program. The director returns to the outskirts of Naples (Castel Volturno, Caserta), where poverty and hopelessness reign, and deserted, covered with tons of rubbish beaches are a meeting place for prostitutes, drug dealers and people - activities that keep the local community alive.
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME | A CASA TUTTI BENE
dir. Gabriele Muccino, Italy 2018, 105’
David di Donatello 2019 - Italian Film Academy Awards - nominations:
Best Supporting Actor (Massimo Ghini)
Best Music (Nicola Piovani)
Best Song "L'invenzione Di Un Poeta" (Tosca)
A sudden storm blocks a family reunited on a small island to celebrate the elderly parents. The relatives are forced to live under the same roof for two days. The storm inevitably ends up stirring everyone's souls.
The cast of the film is full of Italian cinema stars. One of the main roles was played by the famous Italian actor Stefano Accorsi (Italian Race, Made in Italy) - winner of the European Film Award for his film The Ignorant Fairies, who played the role of the Italian prime minister in the popular series Young Pope. He is partnered by Pierfrancesco Favino, whose viewers of Cinema Italia Oggi 2017 admired in Confessions, 84-year-old Sandra Milo, French-Italian star known from Federico Fellini's films (Eight and a half, Giulietta and Ghosts) and Stefania Sandrelli (Hidden Desires, Conformist) - an outstanding actress awarded at the Venice International Film Festival for her leading role in Margarethe von Trotta's film Africa.
WE'LL BE YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL | SAREMO GIOVANI E BELLISSIMI
dir. Letizia Lamartire, Italy 2018, 92’
IFF in Busan 2018: Flash Forward Contest
La Biennale di Venezia 2018: Settimana della Critica
Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt: Amilcar du Jury
Isabella still sings Tic Tac, the song that made her famous in the early nineties, when she was only seventeen. Her place is the Big Star, which has also become her second home. Her young son Bruno is her guitarist. The two are inseparable, they perform every night together and they share a ramshackle but happy life of unpaid bills and midnight strolls around the city. Bruno, however, dreams of a different musical career.
Light touches of comedy and the music bring to life the slow but necessary separation between mother and son, a crucial and painful detachment. Just like the end of any other love story.
Isabella was played by Barbora Bobuľová, born in Slovakia, winner of the David di Donatello award for best actress for her role in Ferzana Özpeteka's film The Sacred Heart. The actress also appears in this year's edition of Cinema Italia Oggi in Hotel Gagarin.
WHEREVER YOU ARE | OVUNQUE PROTEGGIMI
dir. Bonifacio Angius, Italy 2018, 94’
Torino Film Festival 2018: Festa Mobile section
Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2019: International Contest
Mostra de Cinema Italià de Barcelona 2018: Special Screenings
When Alessandro wears his shiny lucky shirt, he feels stunning. He doesn’t feel his fifty years. After singing for an ungrateful audience, like every Saturday night, he starts his day at Blu Star Disco. When in the morning his mother refuses to lend him some money to impress two young girls, Alessandro loses his mind. After a life wasted on a slot machine, already drunk early in the morning, hoping for the luck of a scratch card, he would never have imagined that love could find him. In an hospital.
In the film by Bonifacio Angiusa, awarded by the Young Jury at the Locarno International Film Festival for his previous Perfidia, two outcasts were portrayed by an acting duo: Alessandro Gazale and Francesca Niedda.
