01/08/2011

Sette opere di misericordia, first work of fiction by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio with Roberto Herlitzka, will represent Italy in the running for the Pardo d'oro at the 64th edition of the Locarno Film Festival (from 3 to 13 August).

The film by the De Serio brothers, documentary-makers from Turin who won with Bakroman at the Turin Film Festival 2010, is the story of Luminata, a young clandestine in search of redemption, and of Antonio, an ill, old and mysterious man. Produced by Alessandro Borelli in co-production with Elefant Films (Romania), with the support of MiBAC, Rai Cinema and the Torino Piemonte Film Commission, Sette opere di misericordia will be distributed by Cinecittà Luce.

But the Italian presence extends also to other sections of the festival: the documentaries to be shown out-of-competition include Inconscio italiano by Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luca Guadagnino - director
film profile]), who thanks to Cinecittà Luce’s huge historical archive, reconstructs the Italian invasion of Ethopia in the mid-30s (a production of First Sun); the collective documentary Milano 55% coordinated by Luca Mosso and Bruno Oliviero, in which 50 film-makers talk about the last campaign week for the mayoral election in Milan last May ; and Tahrir (coproduced with France) by Stefano Savona, a real-time chronicle of the Egyptian revolution which took place last February.

Meanwhile L'estate di Giacomo, directed by Alessandro Comodin, takes part in the competition for Contemporary Film-makers. Il respiro dell'arco by Enrico Maria Artale competes for the ‘Pardi di domani’ (Award given to shorts directed by young independent authors or film students). The section of special programmes, which honours great film-makers whose work spans across several areas of expertise, will show Lo Zio di Brooklyn by Franco Maresco e Daniele Cipri, and 81Ž2 by Federico Fellini, in honour of Claudia Cardinale, Pardo alla carriera.

Finally, a touch of Italy can also be found in the juries - Luca Guadagnino will be part of the jury for the International Competition, with Portuguese producer Paolo Branco as its president, while the acclaimed director of Le quattro volte [trailer, film focus], Michelangelo Frammartino, will be judge for the Contemporary Film-makers section, chaired by his German colleague Christoph Hochhausler.

(Translated from Italian)