VENICE 2015 Critics' Week / Italy
Venice: Banat by Adriano Valerio, in the Critics' Week
- This debut piece is the only Italian film in competition. Bagnoli Jungle by Antonio Capuano will close the week, 24 years on from the year he won it with Vito and the Others
The only Italian film among the titles that will be battling it out in the 30th International Critics’ Week (SIC), which will be held from 2 to 12 September 2015, is Banat [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Il viaggio), Adriano Valerio’s debut film starring Edoardo Gabbriellini, Elena Radonicich, Stefan Velniciuc and Piera Degli Esposti. Adriano Valerio attended Marco Bellocchio’s film laboratory and, after participating in the Berlinale Talent Campus and Locarno Film Academy in 2012, shot his most recent short film, 37°4S, which received a special mention at the Cannes Film in 2013, the David di Donatello award for Best Short Film (2014) and a Special Nastro d’Argento Award (2014).
His debut feature film, selected by SIC for Venice, centres around Ivo, a young agronomist. Faced with few professional opportunities, he accepts a job in the Banat, a fertile region of Romania. Clara, on the other hand, has just got out of a relationship and is on the verge of losing her job at the port of Bari. Ivo and Clara meet in a chance encounter and seem to understand one another straight away. They spend just one night together before Ivo leaves for Romania, but this is enough to forge a tie and leave them wanting more. When Clara visits him in Romania, the pair fall in love. Is this form of banishment the only way to be happy?
Banat is a Movimento Film production with Rai Cinema, and co-produced by Ars Digital, Parada Film, Kt Film & Media. It has been recognised as a film of cultural interest, received backing from the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, and was made using funds from the Apulia Film Commission. Selected for the Jerusalem International Film Lab and the 3rd edition of the Mediterranean Coproduction Forum of Bari, it was developed using financial support from the MEDIA Programme.
Bringing SIC 2015 to a close will be Bagnoli Jungle by Antonio Capuano, 24 years on from the year in which this Neapolitan director and screenwriter won the Week with Vito and the Others. Capuano’s filmography is “one which testifies to a personal and independent career in film, which has never bowed down to prevailing fashions and trends”, according to the General Delegate of Critics’ Week, Francesco Di Pace. Produced by Eskimo with Enjoy Movies, Bagnoli Jungle stars Antonio Casagrande, Luigi Attrice, and Marco Grieco. Capuano compares three generations through interlocking stories played out in the harsh and run down but very much alive environment of the Northern suburbs of Naples, home to the old Bagnoli iron and steel works.
(Translated from Italian)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
