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PRODUCTION Italy

Where Shadows Fall, Valentina Pedicini’s debut drama

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- The debut piece by the Apulian director is based on a true story, and is being shown in the Giornate degli Autori section of this year’s Venice Film Festival

Where Shadows Fall, Valentina Pedicini’s debut drama
Elena Cotta and Federica Rosellini in Where Shadows Fall

Anna and Hans, a nurse and her assistant at an old institution for the elderly, are two child spirits stuck in adults’ bodies. Trapped in time and space, they move between the rooms and the garden of what used to be an orphanage. This is the mysterious and dramatic setting for Where Shadows Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valentina Pedicini
film profile
]
, the debut feature by Valentina Pedicini in competition at Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days), a parallel section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival.

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The film marks the return to the set of Elena Cotta, winner of the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice in 2013 for A Street in Palermo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emma Dante
film profile
]
by Emma Dante. Starring alongside Elena Cotta are Federica Rosellini, Josafat Vagni and Lucrezia Guidone, the protagonists of this unsettling story: from Anna’s past appears Gertrud, an elderly genteel woman, and everything seems to comes crashing down. The institution goes back to being what it once was: a cruel refuge for young Yenish nomadic children torn from their families, the setting for a eugenics project led by none other than Gertrud.

Valentina Pedicini’s talent was noticed at various festivals with her documentary Dal profondo (winner of the Doc It Prize at the Rome Film Festival in 2013, selected for the Idfa Accademy, the Berlinale Talent Campus, and winner of the Solinas Prize in 2011) and short film Era ieri. For Where Shadows Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valentina Pedicini
film profile
]
 she took her inspiration from a true story, or rather, 700 true stories. The film was produced by Domenico Procacci for Fandango with Rai Cinema, with support from the Lazio Region’s Regional Fund for Film and Audiovisual Works and the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. The film is being distributed by Fandango Distribuzione.

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(Translated from Italian)

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