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In Competition - Alila

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- Gitai’s new film shows the thousands of faces of the city dwellers in an ironic tone: "it’s the only weapon left to use"

"There’s a time to talk and a time to remain silent”. The Israeli director Amos Gitai quoting from the book of Ecclesiastes in the bible to describe the way he is currently feeling about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We’ve used art and culture, but we are defenceless when faced with the brutality of this struggle". He’s in Venice with his new film Alila, which is being shown in competition. And Gitai described the enormous media coverage of the war as a large scale serialised story: "There are the good guys and the bad guys, who swap places depending on the events of the day: the important thing is to get to the adverts for washing machines". He says the politicians “should have the courage to cross the boundaries to bring the conflict to an end. But both sides think that they’re close to victory".

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The only weapon left to use, according to Gitai, is irony. And Alila is a sort of Altman style Short Cuts, filled with the characters and the changing situations inside a building in Tel-Aviv. "I like the city. It has a lay feel about it, it’s modern and alive. Two hours after a massacre, people clean the street and start up their daily life routines again. I described a human landscape, a fragmented life, casual meetings, love affairs and disappointments in a tableau of many colours". The film is based on a book written by Yehoshua Kenaz, and it is a metaphor for the whole city, contained in a single building. “The outside world seeps into our most intimate and personal spaces, reality slides under your door, you can’t escape it". The actors have given strong performances, capturing the claustrophobic atmosphere in an entertaining way. The cast includes Yael Abecassis (who already starred in Gitai’s Kadosh and who we have also seen at the 60th Venice Film Festival in another film, Ballo a tre passi) and Hanna Laslo, who clearly express the doubts and desires of Israeli women.
Alila is a co-production with France (MP Prod.) and is being sold by World Sales. The film will be distributed in theatres in Italy on September 12, distributed by esse&bi cinematografica.

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(Translated from Italian)

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