Cinema Made in Italy: Highlights
This year’s Cinema Made in Italy
Festival will feature a wide range of genres across nine
critically-acclaimed films. Many of these films will be celebrating
their UK premiere at the London festival at this five day festival.
Catch a glimpse at what Italian’s finest films have to offer:
Anna (Per Amor Vostro) –
directed by Giuseppe Gudino
Shown on: Thursday 10 March (6.15pm)
Neapolitan wife and mother Anna
(Valeria Golino) feels trapped in her home where she must deal
with an abusive husband while taking care of three teenagers. Anna
tries to find meaning in life by getting a job as a cue card holder
at a local production company, where she falls for soap opera star
Michele (Adriano Gianni). Anna must juggle a delicate balance
between love and family while trying to find the happiness she lost
years ago. This film is mainly in black & white with glimpses of
colour to show Anna’s change in feelings throughout the duration of
the film.
First Light (La Prima Luce) –
directed by Vincenzo Marra
Shown on: Friday 11 March (6.20pm)
Marco (Riccardo
Scamarcio), a young lawyer, lives in Bari with his South
African partner Martina (Daniela
Ramírez) and their son, Mateo (Gianni Pezzolla).
Martina doesn’t feel like she can have a future in Bari, which
prompts her to take Mateo and leave Marco without a warning. Marco
goes on a wild hunt in South America with a private detective to find
his family and must deal with a gripping international child custody
battle.
The Beginners (Alaska) –
directed by Claudio Cupellini
Shown on: Friday 11 March (8.50pm)
A hotel waiter (Elio Germano)
and a young model (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) meet and fall in
love in unconventional circumstances. The two struggle to keep their
relationship together while they both deal with rocky situations in
their separate lives.
Wonderous Boccaccio (Maraviglioso
Boccaccio) – directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
Shown on: Saturday 12 March (6.00pm)
Originally based off of Boccaccio’s
book Decameron, the 14th century plague hits the city of
Florence and causes chaos amongst the people struggling to stay
alive. A group of young men and women flee to the Tuscan hills to
escape death and seek shelter in a remote villa where they take turns
telling each other stories of love and its many merits to ease their
minds off of the current situation.
God Willing (Se Dio Vuole)–
directed by Edoardo Falcone
Shown on: Saturday 12 March (8.50pm)
This award-winning comedy and
box-office hit in Italy stars Marco Giallini as Tommaso, a
successful Atheist surgeon with a loving family. When his son decides
to join the priesthood after talking to a charismatic priest, Tommaso
is unhappy and takes the matter into his own hands by going
undercover to spy on the priest. Tommaso’s excessive detective work
starts to pull the family apart, leaving Tommaso trying to mend what
he started.
Don’t Be Bad (non Essere
Cattivo) – directed by Claudio Caligari
Shown on: Sunday 12 March (4.30pm)
Taking place in the 1990s, Two troubled
men Cesare and Vittorio are caught up in the Roman ghetto club scene.
Vittorio starts to realize that he needs to turn his life around and
attempts to make Cesare do the same. Cesare agrees, but unfortunately
falls back into the same old habits. This Oscar-nominated film almost
didn’t make it to the silver screen. Just before the completion of
Don’t Be Bad, director Claudio Caligari passed away after a
battle with cancer. With the help of donors funding the rest of the
project, the remaining team had the film ready just in time for the
Venice Film Festival.
They Call Me Jeeg Robot (Lo
Chiamavano Jeeg Robot) –directed by Gabriele
Mainetti
Shown on: Sunday 13 March (7.30pm)
Petty thief Enzo (Claudio
Santamaria) becomes exposed to a radioactive chemical and starts
to develop unique superpowers. Enzo is set to use his powers to help
him steal more things until he meets Alessia, a girl who confuses him
with Steel Jeeg, a Japanese magna character. This unique spin on the
superhero films is certainly a must-watch for any fan of the latest
action films. They Call Me Jeeg Robot covers a range of issues
in Italy, from political to societal.
Long Live the Bride (Viva La
Sposa) – directed by Ascanio Celestini
Shown on: Monday 14 March (6.30pm)
Nicola, A puppeteer with alcoholism,
lives in the outskirts of Rome and is responsible for a boy that may
or may not be he son. Nicola finds himself in the land of criminals
after becoming involved in a fatal accident, which was originally a
hoax to begin with.
Chlorine (Cloro) – directed by
Lamberto Sanfelice
Shown on: Monday 14 March (8.40pm)
A young teenage girl’s dream of
becoming a synchronized swimmer is put on hold when she is forced to
move to a remote mountain village in Abruzzo following her mother’s
death. Her responsibility of her sick father and younger brother
hold her down from following her dreams, and she tries her best to
cope with the situation.
CINEMA MADE IN ITALY takes place at
Cine Lumiere, London.