Italian Film Festival Cardiff 2017 Programme

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

22nd - 26th NOVEMBER 2017 | CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE

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04 FOREWORD “The Italian Film Festival Cardiff brings to the screens of Wales a dynamic and diverse portrait of contemporary Italy”

Publisher EMMA CLARK Designer JAYDON MARTIN

05 FLAVIO BUCCI & MONICA VITTI A detailed feature on two of the biggest names in Italian cinema.

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06 & 07 ANDREA MAGNANI INTERVIEW “I am thrilled that the premiere of Easy is taking place in Cardiff at the Italian Film Festival.” worls 08 & 09 MATRIX Your essential guide to what’s on at the festival.

09 & 10 MEET THE DIRECTORS A detailed feature on each Director whose film have been selected at IFFC. 13 CARDIFF COLLABARATION IFFC have been involved with both Iris Prize and Watch Africa, the Wales Africa Film Festival.

14 ABOUT THE ICCW Meet the organisation that has brought The Italian Film Festival to life.

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ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL CARDIFF Back again for a third consecutive year, The Italian Film Festival Cardiff brings to the screens of Wales a dynamic and diverse portrait of contemporary Italy with all of its beauty, complexity and contradictions. This year’s selection of cutting-edge films features all genres of Italian cinematography with a strong emphasis on new narrative forms and independent productions. We are incredibly proud of the fact that out of our thirteen films, seven are UK premieres and all are Welsh premieres, including one of Italy’s Oscar contenders, A Ciambra, by Jonas Carpignano. Many of the directors and protagonists of these excellent and diverse films are able to join us at this year’s festival, so make sure you catch our post-screening Q&As (further info on the programme). The entire festival is being held at the brilliant Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, and the support of this excellent venue means we can offer a fully interactive experience in a quintessentially Cardiff venue.

During the past two years the Festival has become a lively space to build on this tradition. There is a deep, long-standing bond between Wales and Italy, and just as Wales has always had an international aspect to its culture and a long tradition of being open to the world, the Italian Film Festival Cardiff aspires to be a key part of Wales’ increasingly international artistic profile. So, all that’s left now is to get your tickets and join us for four days of delights. Buon divertimento!

- Luisa Percòpo and Luca Paci.

MEET THE

IFFC TEAM

LUISA PÈRCOPO

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Luisa is an Australian-Italian-Sardinian living in Wales who loves cinema and all forms of visual arts. She has studied, taught and written about Cultural Studies, Photography, Australian & Transnational Cinema and Italian Popular Culture. Cinema allowed her to combine her love for writing and for music ever since Robert Bresson pointed out: “cinematography is a writing with images in movement and with sounds.” Stressful as it might be, organising the Italian Film Festival Cardiff is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences she has ever had!

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LUCA PACI

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Luca is a translingual poet, translator and lecturer. His works include the translation of ‘La ragazza Carla’ by Elio Pagliarini, essays on Benedetto Croce, Carmelo Bene and Cesare Pavese. In English, he has published The Fine Line with poet Juergen Gebrsezgabiher, the video poem London Trip-tych with Luke Heeley and took part in Poets on Pasolini for the BFI. He is currently teaching Classic and Contemporary Italian Cinema, Italian Cultural Studies and Translation at Swansea University.

HELEN VALLIS

Helen was an Associate Producer in the BBC Wales Drama Department. Her credits include: Dr Who, He Knew He Was Right, Care (BAFTA and Prix Italia 2001), The Magician’s House (Emmy 2000), Tiger Bay, Streetlife and The Healer. She is currently studying Italian and is passionate about Italian cinema.

ALICE KILGARRIFF

Having studied Italian and Spanish at Cardiff University, Alice has been able to weave her various passions into her work, which spans being a freelance translator and interpreter, a brief foray into the wine trade, and, most importantly, freelance company and project management for arts organisations here in Cardiff.

OLGA RACHELLO

Olga is an Italian American freelance writer and editor. She studied philosophy at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, where she worked as a translator and English teacher. She has recently moved to Cardiff and is looking forward to discovering the opportunities this great city has to offer.

FLAVIO BUCCI “We are all losers, each one of us, and the world keeps on spinning regardless of whether or not we are on it.” These are the words of Flavio Bucci - flawed genius, addictive personality and living legend. Few Italian actors encompass postwar

MONICA VITTI Italian actress Monica Vitti is one of the most significant women in Italian film.

Though recognised the world over for the allure of her elusive gaze, captured masterfully by Michelangelo Antonioni, Vitti’s prowess as an actress goes far beyond

Italian film history quite as completely as he does. Born in Turin to migrants from

the pretty face, bringing with her a sensitivity and intellectuality to the films in

Southern Italy, Bucci earned a deservedly shining reputation for his explosive por-

which she was involved. Born in Rome in 1931, she joined Antonioni’s Teatro Nuovo

trayals of marginalised and eccentric characters. Having trained at Turin’s Teatro

di Milano in 1957 and in the early sixties she started a personal and

Stabile, he quickly moved into the world of celluloid. He owes his debut on the

professional relationship with the director that would, by the actress’ own

silver screen to Elio Petri, one of Italy’s most talented directors of socio-political

admission, give rise to her most important work. It was Vitti who starred time

satire, who gave him the lead in his 1973 film ‘La proprietà non è più un furto’

and time again in Antonioni’s films, featuring in the internationally-acclaimed

(Property is No Longer Theft) alongside veteran Ugo Tognazzi. Since then, he

‘L’avventura’, followed by ‘L’eclisse’ and ‘La notte’ - her unique existential charm at

has worked with directors such as Dario Argento, Mario Monicelli and Paolo Sor-

the centre of the narratives. An accomplished and versatile performer, she also made

rentino, whilst also acting extensively on stage and for the small screen - as with

many comedies such as Modesty Blaise, ‘Dramma della gelosia (tutti i particolari in

his television portrayal of Emilian painter Antonio Ligabue in 1977, which remains

cronaca)’ (Jealousy, Italian Style), and An Almost Perfect Affair. She has collected an

one of his most memorable performances. His ability to communicate complex and

incredible line-up of awards over the course of her career, including 8 Globo d’Oro

fragile aspects of human existence is central to his latest film, ‘Il vangelo secondo

and 5 David di Donatello awards for Best Actress, and the Honorary Golden Lion

Mattei’ (The Gospel According to Mattei), by directors/actors Antonio Andrisani and Pascal Zullino, where he plays a man whose acting obsession dates back to the time he was given a minor role in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 masterpiece, ‘Il vangelo secondo Matteo’ (The Gospel According to Matthew). Cinema for him continues to be life-affirming. As he put it in a recent interview: “I’ve gone back into acting, I’m not cut out for dying”.

Award at the Venice Film Festival. We will be watching her mesmerising performance in ‘Il deserto rosso’ (Red Desert), Antonioni’s first colour film, which tells the tale of a woman who has an affair with her husband’s business associate against the backdrop of an relentlessly dismal, industrial cityscape. The film touches upon themes such as existentialism, mental health and the instability of life in the modern world, and received international praise on its release.

Monica Vitti has now left public life but the actress remains an icon in the history of Italian cinema and her performances continue to enchant present-day viewers.

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ANDREA MAGNANI Andrea Magnani is an Italian screenwriter and director born in Rimini, on Italy’s Adriatic Coast.

We interviewed him about his irresistible comedy-road movie Easy, which among other accolades won the Grand Prix du Jury at the Annecy Cinema Italian Film Festival and will be screened at the Festival as a UK premiere on November 26.

You started out as a screenwriter and then moved into directing, for which you received the prize for Best Documentary at the Trieste Film Festival (Zone di Cinema) for Caffè Trieste (2009). What led you to transition from the writer’s pen to the director’s lens?

The themes of depression and eating disorders had already appeared in Basta Guardarmi (2006), a short about a teenager dealing with obesity who decides that life is not worth living. What significance do these themes have for you?

Well, even before I started working as a screenwriter I had always thought that I wanted to become a director. I did it by following what I believe to be the most interesting element in the filmmaking process, which is the writing phase. This is where everything originates, where everything is invented. All the other aspects of cinema, from directing to editing, are subsequent to this phase, they follow it.

These themes touch me on a personal level. I think depression is quite a common condition, especially in the affluent world, and it’s a condition that many of us are affected by without realising it. We might not even see those around us who suffer from it. Unfortunately there are people who are close to me who suffer from it. I believe that every experience in life stays with you, it’s like dust that layers onto you, and when you write a story all your experiences turn into something that you have already seen, that you have already been through. These themes are part of that. They are very dear to me, and I hope I have dealt with them sufficiently in Easy.

The film unfolds in a series of artistic shots that accompany this improbable road trip, in which sometimes the real protagonist seems to be the landscape itself. Why did you choose this particular corner of the world as a setting for your film?

The decision to set the film in Ukraine was more for narrative purposes than for its landscape. The landscape also has a role to play but I mainly chose Ukraine because I needed a place where the protagonist could lose himself. I can assure you that if you don’t understand Cyrillic script and you have the misfortune of getting lost in Ukraine, then you are truly lost, in the sense that you have no reference points; everything you brought with you from the world you came from is deprived of its meaning. The protagonist needed to be completely lost to find himself. Ukraine also gave me so much more than that, with its immense landscape and its endless plains which reminded me of certain Western films that fascinated me as a child. This is certainly a road movie but it’s also a Western, as the soundtrack by Luca Ciut suggests.

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‘Easy’ is an interesting choice of name for the protagonist, whose life seems anything but that. Is it meant ironically?

That’s the idea, yes. On the one hand Easy is a diminutive of Isidoro, the name of the protagonist, but at the same time the term lends itself well because of its English meaning, precisely to underline the fact that this trip, and the weight of life that he carries around, are anything but easy. I liked this twofold meaning with its underlying paradox.

“I don’t know if there is a crucial moment when things change in life, but rather we discover things that are already inside us but that we might not be fully aware of, or at the very least we don’t give them the recognition they deserve.”

The whole story rests on an initial moment when the protagonist, who has given up his dreams and has been living in a state of inertia for years, says ‘yes’. What drives him to accept his brother’s offer?

Isidoro is basically a good guy, or he wouldn’t embark on this journey in the first place. What rouses him, what makes him get up off his bed and out of his house is emotional blackmail on his brother’s part. He is faced with the decision of whether or not to help his brother out and to stop him from getting into trouble, maybe even committing suicide, which is something Isidoro tries to do at the beginning of the film.

This is why he takes on the job and agrees to go on this trip. What the brother doesn’t know is that he has also given him the chance to find himself and to start over.

Was there a crucial moment when you said ‘yes’ and everything changed?

I don’t know if there is a crucial moment when things change in life, but rather we discover things that are already inside us but that we might not be fully aware of, or at the very least we don’t give them the recognition they deserve. I think we all have turning points in life, when we do something that is in stark contrast with our scheduled, everyday life and by doing this we change the course of our existence.

I remember one in particular, when my parents left for Central America, where they currently reside. I was 23 and I decided to stay, which was an act of emancipation from my father and from my family. From that moment I took flight and everything changed, because that’s when I started following my dreams and what led me to where I am today.

Caffè Trieste tells the tale of a historical bar opened by Italians in San Francisco and which represents an important expression of the enterprising spirit of our emigrants. Wales became a destination for Italian migrants from the end of the 19th century and today has a vibrant Italian community that is tightly woven into the social fabric. What do you know about this nation?

Caffè Trieste is indeed a historical Italian bar; it was originally called Bar Vesuvio and was later taken over by a man from Trieste called Gianni Giotta, who passed away not long ago. I have also dealt with the theme of emigration in other occasions.

Unfortunately I don’t know a lot about Wales and I have never been there. What I do know is that a lot of immigrants from my region, Emilia Romagna, moved to the UK in the 19th century.

What does it mean to you to have the premiere of your film shown at the Italian Film Festival in Cardiff?

I am thrilled that the premiere of Easy is taking place in Cardiff at the Italian Film Festival. It means a lot to me because it is not only a Welsh premiere but also a UK premiere. I am very keen to find out how the film is received there. The French and the Germans at the Locarno Film Festival, as well as the Italians, the Ukranians and the Chinese – all places where I was present for the viewing of the film – all had a similar reaction to it. I am curious to see how it will be received in the UK. I realise the viewers may consist mainly of Italians or Italian-Welsh but at the same time I hope the audience is as diverse as possible. I would love to be there to see it.

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JONAS CARPIGNANO

SILVIO SOLDINI

ENRICO LANDO

Born in 1984 to an Italian father and an AfricanAmerican mother, Jonas Carpignano spent his childhood between Rome and New York City, and the influence of this dual nationality is a defining quality of his films.

Italy, with its role as gateway to Europe from Africa, features heavily, whilst the America side, according to the director, helps him “bring a different perspective”.

His films explore themes of people in movement, of belonging or not, and as such could not be more pertinent to the world we live in. His work as a director has been shown around the world and his work has been awarded numerous accolades. His first feature film ‘Mediterranea’ debuted at Cannes Film Festival, whilst his second feature film ‘A Ciambra’, which we are proud to present this year, is one of Italy’s Oscar contenders.

Silvio Soldini is from Milan where he studied Political Science before switching to study Film at NYU. Soldini’s multi-award-winning career spans both documentary and fiction. Working as writer and director across many genres he is a master of the art of filmmaking. For audiences worldwide, his best known film is Bread and Tulips which stars Licia Maglietta and Bruno Ganz, and for which he was awarded the David di Donatello 2000 awards for Best Film and Best Director. Silvio Soldini brings his latest film Emma. to the Italian Film Festival. The film, which was shown out of competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival and opened in cinemas in Italy in September, tells the story of a fiercely independent woman blind since the age of 16. Soldini has also explored the non-sighted world in his 2014 documentary, ‘Per altri occhi’, for which he won the Nastro Argento.

Enrico Lando is from Padua but has lived and worked in London where he began his career. He is a director and writer for the cinema and TV . His wide ranging career includes documentaries, fiction and music programmes.

Enrico’s early short film, ‘Its a Goat’s Life’ was made in English and is set in Ireland. In Italy he made the very successful sitcom ‘I soliti idioti’ for MTV. The popularity of the television series (2009 - 2012) resulted in his cinema debut with a feature film version in 2011. The film was quickly followed by ‘I 2 soliti idioti’ in 2012.

The Italian Film Festival Cardiff is showing Enrico’s short film La storia dell’orso’, the real story of an Alpine community symbolically bringing a bear to account in court.

PETER MARCIAS

BEPI VIGNA

VOLKER SATTEL

Peter Marcias is a director and screenwriter. Born in Sardinia in 1977, he moved to Rome to study screenwriting and pursue a career in the film industry.

After having worked on a number advertisments and short films, his first work to appear at the cinema was the episode ‘Sono Alice’ in the collective film ‘Bambini’.

His first feature length film was ‘Un attimo sospesi’, which was presented at the São Paulo International Film Festival 2008 under the category New Directors Competitions, followed by ‘I bambini della sua vita’, winner of the prize Globo d’Oro in 2011.

Having graduated in Law, Bepi Vigna (born 1957) quickly turned his hand to writing comics and graphic novels, helping to create Nathan Never and Legs Weaver (Sergio Bonelli Publishing House). He has worked as a writer in radio and television, as well as authoring theatre plays, novels and scripts.

He is the artistic director of the Nues Festival – Fumetti & Cartoni nel Mediterraneo. He has directed commercials, documentaries and short films Here he presents his beautiful short, ‘Nausicaa - L’altra Odissea’, which revisits Homer’s epic poem, this time from the viewpoint of the female protagonist.

Volker Sattel was born in Speyer, Germany and studied at the Baden Wurttemberg Film Academy. The Italian Film Festival Cardiff is screening his film ‘La Cupola’ as part of the day devoted to the work of Antonioni. Volker Sattel’s film is a poetic exploration of the house, La Cupola, which was built on the coast of Sardegna for Antonioni and his muse, Monica Vitti. In this remote, surreal refuge Antonioni wrote both ‘Zabriskie Point’ and ‘The Passenger’. Volker Sattel is a documentarist and cinematographer whose elegant filmmaking has explored the nuclear industry in ‘Under Control’ and architectural design in ‘Beyond Metabolism’.

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CARDIFF COLLABORATION Since its inception, the Italian Film Festival Cardiff has been involved in bringing Italian filmmakers to Cardiff, contributing to the rich tapestry of film festivals the city now offers.

This year, Italian directors in collaboration with the IFFC have been involved with both Iris Prize 2017 and Watch Africa, the Wales Africa Film Festival 2017.

Irene Dionisio - Sponde (Shores), Wales Africa Film Festival 2017 Irene Dionisio is a screenwriter and director from Turin, and in 2017 Irene became the new director of Lovers Film Festival - Torino LGBTQI Visions. Born in 1986, she studied Aesthetic Philosophy at the University of Turin and later took up documentary studies. She is a co-founder of Fluxlab, an association involved in cultural and artistic projects such as Photography for Environment and Be P.Art!, a training course for social workers to develop techniques for the integration of youth through art. She wrote and directed a number of documentaries which explore themes such as the struggles of social integration and the intricacies of intercultural dialogue, mental health, social and economic crisis and prostitution. In 2015, she wrote and directed ‘Sponde - Nel sicuro sole del Nord’, a documentary screened in Cardiff this November. The film tells the tale of an unlikely bond that forms between a Tunisian sculptor and postman, Mohsen, and Vincenzo, a retired undertaker, who find themselves on opposite shores of the Mediterranean. ‘Sponde’ was presented at the 56th edition of the Festival dei Popoli in Florence.

JO CODA - XAVIER, IRIS PRIZE 2017 Filmmaker and photographer Jo Coda was born in Cagliari, Sardinia in 1964. He began his artistic career with video art installations in Europe’s foremost galleries and museums, and became director of the V-Art Festival (Festival Internazionale Immagine d’Autore) in 1994. He is the author and director of numerous shorts, and made his first foray into feature films with 2013’s ‘Il rosa nudo’, which was met with critical acclaim, as did his second feature film, ‘Bullied To Death’ in 2016. On the opening night of this year’s Iris Prize here in Cardiff, Jo Coda’s short film, ‘Xavier’, was given its UK premiere as the first film to be screened at the 2017 Iris Prize, in collaboration with the IFFC. The deeply-moving short looks at the young gay policeman, Xavier Jugelé, who was killed in a terrorist attack last year, just before he was due to be married. The film takes as its inspiration the eulogy written by the fallen policeman’s (posthumous) husband, succeeding in its attempt to convey not only the desperate grief that comes from having someone you love so cruelly snatched away, but also the forgiveness that is necessary in order for that love to endure.

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W H AT I S T H E I C C W ?

The Italian Cultural Centre Wales is an active space to display a range of Italian cultural activities and events including cinema, music, visual arts, poetry and literature. It is a hub for Italians who live, have lived or are temporarily living, in Wales. The ICCW explores and encourages new connections between Italy, Wales and Europe. Since its establishment in May 2015 the Centre has considerably grown, becoming a visible presence of contemporary Italian culture for both Italians and Italophiles alike. It has also liaised with the well established Welsh-Italian community and through the promotion of a wide range of events it has become a connecting hub in multilingual and multicultural Wales.

Since last autumn, we have organised a number of brilliant initiatives, involving literature, music and, naturally, film. Examples include a children’s workshop and presentation of the book In the Sea There

are Crocodiles by author Fabio Geda; Credevo/I believed, a spoken word and music performance with Italian author Simonetta Agnello Hornby and jazz singer Filomena Campus; jazz from the Atlas Trio; Il Conciorto - A Veggie Concert with acclaimed musician Biagio Bagini and Gian Luigi Carlone; a screening of Shores directed by Irene Dionisio in partnership with the Watch Africa Film Festival, as well as film screenings with directors Maria Pecchioli, Jonas Carpignano and Jo Coda.

We are a charity-based organisation and we are all donating our time and energy on a voluntary basis.

We are now in the process of getting our charity registered so that we will hopefully be able to partake in funding provided by the Lottery Fund and other Welsh Government bodies. However, this is for the distant future.

For the near future, we really need your contribution as you are the lifeblood of our Centre! Please join our organisation today to help us deliver another successful year. In exchange for your support we are happy to offer our members a number of discounts at some of the finest Italian restaurants and retailers in Wales.

As a member, you will have first notice for all of our events, invitations to members-only events and be eligible for members-only discounts at selected Italian restaurants and shops. You will also receive a regular online newsletter.

To find out more, visit our website atwww.iccw.wales

IFFC’s NEW LOGO Our new logo, created by the Casati Graphic Studio, combines two symbols of both Welsh and Italian culture, without diverting the attention from the main protagonists of the Festival: the films.

It is the word ‘Festival’ that links these two cultures, with the figure of the jester at the centre, telling tales of far-away lands and epic adventures to entertain the royal court.

Together, the joker’s hat and the king’s

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crown, are a nod to both the Arthurian Cycle (one of the pillars of Anglo-Celtic culture) and the Carnival, the ultimate Italian festa with its masks and revelry. The logo also plays with the acronym ‘IFF’, derived from the initials of Italian Film Festival and the final letters of Cardiff, its home city.

This is all tied together with the flowing reel, the film, the most important element of all!

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