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VENICE 2017 Special Screenings

The Order of Things: When fiction reveals a hidden truth

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- VENICE 2017: Andrea Segre's film pre-empts the recent Paris Summit on possible solutions to the migrant crisis

The Order of Things: When fiction reveals a hidden truth

Irregular immigration has become a common problem for countries in the European Union following the Schengen agreements, compelling them to form a system of joint control in order to increase cooperation with police forces in non-European countries. An international task force of highly specialised police was created to manage this system and forms the premise for The Order of Things [+see also:
trailer
interview: Andrea Segre
film profile
]
, which is being shown as part of the Special Screening section at the Venice Film Festival, and tells the story of one of these experts. Fictional characters and facts are placed within an authentic social reality, just like the beginning of Francesco Rosi's 1963 masterpiece Hands Over the City. Released in Italian cinemas by Parthenos (and distributed by Sophie Dulac Distribution in France), the movie was directed by Andrea Segre and produced by Jolefilm with Rai Cinema. The film is being released with remarkable timing, following the Paris Summit between Europe's greatest powers in support of Italy's migration policies. Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre's French co-production with Mact Productions and Sophie Dulac Productions only emphasises the film's European character, which is certainly not in line with the goals of the summit organised by Emmanuel Macron, at which it was decided to entrust an unstable Libya with the refoulement of migrants, thus endangering human rights.

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A passionate and convincing performance by Paolo Pierobon (The Beginners [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), the film's protagonist, Corrado Rinaldi, is a senior official for the Italian Interior Ministry, specialising in international missions against irregular immigration and about to leave for Libya. His colleague, Luigi Colazzi (Giuseppe BattistonAfter the War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Annarita Zambrano
film profile
]
), welcomes him to Tripoli along with French government official Gérard (Olivier RabourdinThe Guardians [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile
]
), with whom Corrado visits a centre for asylum seekers. The conditions in which refugees are kept and the discovery of a hidden body confirm what officials already suspected: those who run these hotspots are doing business with traffickers by supplying them with immigrants. Corrado clashes with the logic of local tribal powers and then with politicians upon his return to Italy. Above all, Corrado must face his own conscience when he tries to help a young Somalian woman, Swada (played by performer and theatrical actress Yusra Warsam), whom he meets at the Libyan welcome centre.

Segre has often dealt with migrants in his previous documentaries Ibi [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 (Locarno 2017), Mare chiuso (lit. "Closed Sea") and Come un uomo sulla terra (lit. "Like a Man on Earth") in 2009, as well as in his fiction films, Shun Li and the Poet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Segre
interview: Andrea Segre
film profile
]
(LUX Prize in 2013) and First Snowfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. With The Order of Things he flips perspectives, assuming the point of view of a police officer, and showing us how the people entrusted with the containment of an epochal and unstoppable phenomenon deal with their actions. The goal ultimately remains the same: activating our consciences and forcing us to reflect. 

The Order of Things is sold by Belgian company BE for Films.

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(Translated from Italian)

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