Nanni’s first Turin

by Gabriele Barcaro

07/11/2007 - The primary objective, to capture the attention of the media, has been achieved: judging by the press conference, the risk of handing over the artistic direction of the 25th Turin Film Festival (November 23-December 1) to Nanni Moretti seems to have paid off.

All eyes are on him: a director, actor, producer, exhibitor and distributor, the man behind Dear Diary is for the first time heading one of the most important film events in Italy, and immediately proved his intentions of continuing along the lines of Turin’s past.

“I love this festival," he said. "It's rooted in the city and I’d like for cinema to feel at home here. It’s also an important space for short and documentary films, two ways of filmmaking that interest me, and to which we will dedicate two sections – Italiana.doc and Italiana.corti – while the competition will be at the heart of the programme”.

The competition section – reserved for first, second or third films – features 15 titles, six of which are European: Lino by Jean-Louis Malesi and Water Lilies [trailer] by Cèline Sciamma (both from France), Lithuania’s Volgelfrei (directed by Janis Kalejs, Janis Putnins, Gatis Smits and Anna Viduleja), Irish director Lenny Abrahamson’s Garage [trailer, film focus], German title Neandertal by Jan Christoph Glaser and Ingo Haeb, and Bard Breien’s Norwegian black comedy The Art of Negative Thinking [trailer].

Italy, however, will be the focus of a special sidebar, Panorama Italiano, which will include Alina Marazzi’s We Want Roses Too [trailer] (highly acclaimed at Locarno), and four world premieres: the feature debut by actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio (Lascia perdere, Johnny!), Peter Del Monte’s latest (Nelle tue mani), and two films tied to the city’s industrial traditions, In fabbrica by Francesca Comencini (a documentary on the working class) and Signorina Effe by Wilma Labate, a difficult love story set against the Fiat union struggles.

The collateral sections teeming with European titles include Anteprime, in which Italian distributors present premieres of some of the strongest titles from their upcoming slates, such as Sam Garbarski’s Irina Palm [trailer, film focus] (in competition at Berlin and out in Italy in December through Teodora) and Irish musical Once [trailer] by John Carney (distributed by Eagle Pictures); La zona, dedicated to experimental cinema, which will offer two Hungarian directors much loved by international critics, Béla Tarr (The Man from London [trailer]) and Benedek Fliegauf’s (Milky Way.

Fuori concorso (Out of Competition) features Farkas by Hungary’s Tamás Tóth, UK film Brick Lane [trailer] by Sarah Gavron and Cannes titles Actrices [trailer] by actress-director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and French/Russian co-production Aleksandra [trailer] by Aleksandr Sokurov.

(Translated from Italian)