Pesaro, strong programme despite budget cuts

by Michela Greco

12/06/2009 - Running from June 21-29, the 45th Pesaro Film Festival was yet another cinema event to have lost some of its public funding – €50,000 less than in 2008.

Nevertheless, it features an impressive programme, with this year’s international focus on Israel, the films of which will give audiences a chance “to explore the situation in the Middle East in all its complexities, and beyond the clichés,” says Festival director Giovanni Spagnoletti.

The festival’s seven competition films include the Italian/Austrian La Pivellina [trailer] by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, which premiered in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes; Turkish title Black Dog Barking; and Ian Olds’ Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, a docu-fiction that also speaks of the kidnapping of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

Italy features prominently in the section Bande à Part, dedicated to more innovative and experimental works. Titles include Barbara Cupisti’s Forbidden Childhood, an ideal companion piece to her 2007 film Madri that documents the collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian pacifists, Carola Spadoni’s Meeting the S.E.W.A Movement, and the premiere of Felice Farina’s La Fisica dell’Acqua; alongside the June 27 Master Class held by Marco Bellocchio.

Also of note is the Cinema in the Square screening of Elia Suleiman’s latest film, The Time that Remains [trailer] (n competition at Cannes).

This year’s parallel Special Event, a complete retrospective on one of the country’s great filmmakers, is dedicated to Alberto Lattuada.