12/05/2023 - Leonardo D’Agostini’s second movie led by the French actress forms part of the Italian sales agent’s line-up, alongside crime film Come pecore in mezzo ai lupi and teen drama Noi anni luce

Four new titles in post-production and three market premieres are on the agenda for Italy’s True Colours at the Marché du Film (running 16 – 24 May), unspooling within the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Stealing focus among the various post-production titles in the offing is the thriller A Dark Story (Una storia nera), which is Leonardo D’Agostini’s second film after the highly successful movie The Champion [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Leonardo D’Agostini
film profile], starring Laetitia Casta . Vito and Carla are a couple with three children who’ve been separated for some time. They each have new lives with respective partners, but Vito’s sudden disappearance sets in motion an investigation into the past of all of those involved. The film is based on Antonella Lattanzi’s novel of the same name and is produced by Groenlandia together with RAI Cinema.

The line-up also includes the hotly anticipated upcoming film by Giorgio Diritti (Hidden Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giorgio Diritti
film profile]), which is currently in post-production, entitled Lubo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile]. It’s set in Switzerland in the winter of 1939, when a young Yenish (a nomadic ethnic group) boy is called up by the Swiss army to defend the border with Austria from the imminent threat of the Second World War. His cousin manages to reach him and tells him that the gendarmes took his children away because they are children of wanderers, gypsies and need to follow the national re-education program created by the Kinder der Landstrasse, a pro-government organization influenced by eugenics theories prevalent in Europe in the 30’s. Lubo defects and decides to search for his children. Produced by Indiana Production and Aranciafilm, alongside RAI Cinema, Hugofilm Features and Proxima Milano, Lubo is spearheaded by the German Shooting Star of 2018 Franz Rogowski, an actor on whom numerous European productions are setting their sights. The cast also includes Christophe Sermet, Valentina Bellè, Noemi Besedes, Joel Basman and Cecilia Steiner.

Another eagerly awaited work is Laura Luchetti’s latest effort after her award-winning work Twin Flower [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], La bella estate (read our article), a teen drama likewise set in the 30’s and based on Cesare Pavese’s novel of the same name. The cast stars Yile Yara Vianello alongside daughter of art Deva Cassel in her debut role. Kino Produzioni produced the film together with RAI Cinema and 9.99 Films.

Last but not least, True Colours will tout an environmentally themed animated film called Forest, directed by Luca Della Grotta & Francesco Dafano. The pair helmed their first feature-length animation Trash [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2020, winning multiple awards in numerous international festivals, including Cartoon On The Bay. The protagonist this time round is a young mushroom called Fey who sets off in search of the legendary Blazewatchers and finds she has to defend the forest from a fire caused by humans.

Stand-out market premieres on the agenda for the sales agent include Lyda Patitucci’s debut work Come pecore in mezzo ai lupi [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which is a crime drama led by Isabella Ragonese and produced by Groenlandia and RAI Cinema, about an undercover police officer who infiltrates a dangerous criminal group and realises her little brother (Andrea Arcangeli) is also part of the gang. The film’s screenplay was penned by consummate pro Filippo Gravino.

Another debut feature film comes in the form of Tiziano Russo’s Noi anni luce (read our article), a teen drama which might be placed in the category of “sentimental movie featuring a terminal illness”. Seventeen-year-old Elsa (Carolina Sala) has leukaemia and, with the help of Edo (Rocco Fasano), a boy her age whom she meets in hospital, she sets out in search of the only person who can save her life with a bone marrow transplant: her father. The film is produced and distributed in Italy by Notorious Pictures.

If, on the other hand, it’s a light-hearted comedy we’re looking for, there’s Grosso guaio all’Esquilino: La leggenda del Kung Fu [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by directorial duo YouNuts! (Niccolò Celaia and Antonio Usbergo), starring Lillo Petrolo Carolina Crescentini, Riccardo Antonaci and Giorgio Colangeli. Produced by Lucky Red together with Prime Video, the film was released on Amazon Prime Italy on 6 April this year and revolves around a shy thirteen-year-old from a multicultural neighbourhood in Rome who dreams of winning the heart of Yasmin and who tries to defend himself from the school bully. One day B-list film actor arrives in his life and tries to teach him the art of Kung fu, in his own unique way.

True Colours’ rich line-up also includes titles previously presented in Berlin’s EFM, including Leiv Igor Devold’s LGBT+ drama Norwegian Dream, Marina Seresesky’s Argentine-Spanish work Let the Dance Begin [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Antonio Bigini’s The Properties of Metals [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Alessio Cremonini’s Prophets [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

(Translated from Italian)