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VENICE 2023 Orizzonti / Orizzonti Extra

Promising debuts and stories of lost adolescence to adorn the Orizzonti showcase

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- The Venice Film Festival section dedicated to discovering new talent will screen 18 films in competition and 9 in Orizzonti Extra

Promising debuts and stories of lost adolescence to adorn the Orizzonti showcase
Paradise is Burning by Mika Gustafson

Eighteen titles in competition and another nine presented in the Extra line-up will form the basis of the Orizzonti section’s programme for the 80th Venice Film Festival, which is unspooling on the Lido between 30 August and 9 September. Dedicated to the discovery of new talent with a particular focus on lesser-known directors, Orizzonti is once again set to showcase films from all over the world, alongside a handful of interesting debuts.

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According to the festival’s director Alberto Barbera who presented the Official Selection in a live stream today, Paradise is Burning [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mika Gustafson
film profile
]
by Mika Gustafson is a wonderful, female-focused debut revolving around three young sisters who are at risk of being separated on account of their absent mother. Adolescence is a recurrent theme in this year’s event, as seen in City of Wind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, which takes a personal approach to explore the dreams, desires and sexuality of two Mongolian teens torn between modernity and tradition. Dormitory [+see also:
film review
interview: Nehir Tuna
film profile
]
by Nehir Tuna is another first work, which, according to Barbera, brings to mind Marco Bellocchio’s debut movie Fists in the Pocket as it follows a teen from an upper-class family who’s sent to a Muslim boarding school in the second half of the 1990s. Tuna’s is a tale where religious fundamentalism, homosexual impulses and political tensions intertwine.

Upon Open Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Mariana and Santiago Arriaga - the children of director Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote the film’s screenplay many years ago - is a road movie led by three boys who wants to take revenge on a lorry driver who killed their father in a road traffic accident. In Behind the Mountains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mohamed Ben Attia
film profile
]
, meanwhile, which is Mohamed Ben Attia’s third feature film, a father who has recently been released from prison wishes to tell all to his son about the strange power he is endowed with. Other European co-productions in the line-up, such as Housekeeping for Beginners [+see also:
film review
interview: Goran Stolevski, Alina Serban
film profile
]
by Goran Stolevski, which was developed within the Biennale College Cinema initiative, question what it means to be a family and be gay in the Balkans today, while Hesitation Wound [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selman Nacar
film profile
]
by Selman Nacar tells the story of a female lawyer faced with an ethical-professional dilemma. Heartless [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Nara Normande and Tião is based on their short film which won an award in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2014 and Explanation for Everything [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gábor Reisz
film profile
]
by Gábor Reisz (“a film which I’ll be criticised for not including in the main competition”, Barbera predicts) paints a worrying picture of the political and moral situation in modern-day Hungary.

Hailing from Italy we’ll find El paraiso [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Enrico Maria Artale
film profile
]
by Enrico Maria Artale, starring Edoardo Pesce and painting the portrait of a 40-year-old who enjoys a symbiotic relationship with his mother, until a Colombian girl comes along; Nowhere [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Simone Massi (co-produced by Switzerland), which is the first animated feature film by a director known for having made the festival’s promo videos over the years, and which might be described as a history of Italy as viewed from below by a rural family, spanning the 1920s and the present day; and An Endless Sunday [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Parroni
film profile
]
by Alain Parroni (co-produced alongside Germany and Ireland), a first work which, according to Barbera, will cause quite a stir, abandoning traditional narrative models to tell a story about nihilism and rebellion on the extreme outskirts of Rome. Italy’s representative in the Orizzonti Extra line-up, meanwhile, is actress Micaela Ramazzotti with her first directorial effort, Felicità [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, revolving around a young woman who aspires to work in film as a make-up artist but who’s forced to come to terms with her dysfunctional family.

Likewise worth a mention is the French-Belgian genre film For Night Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Rouzet
film profile
]
by Céline Rouzet, where the vampire metaphor serves to express teenage malaise, and, among the other Orizzonti Extra movies, Phantom Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Luàna Bajrami, which is produced by the Toledano-Nakache duo; the Ukrainian title Forever, Forever [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Buryachkova
film profile
]
by Anna Buryachkova; Pet Shop Boys [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Schnabel
film profile
]
by Olmo Schnabel, which stars Dario Yazbek (Gael Garcia Bernal’s brother); and, last but not least, The Dreamer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anaïs Tellenne
film profile
]
, which marks young Belgian actress Anaïs Tellenne’s directorial debut.

The selected films are as follows:

Orizzonti

Upon Open Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga (Mexico/Spain)
El paraiso [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Enrico Maria Artale
film profile
]
- Enrico Maria Artale (Italy)
Behind the Mountains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mohamed Ben Attia
film profile
]
- Mohamed Ben Attia (Tunisia/Belgium/France/Saudi Arabia/Qatar)
The Red Suitcase - Fidel Devkota (Nepal/Sri Lanka)
Paradise is Burning [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mika Gustafson
film profile
]
- Mika Gustafson (Sweden/Italy/Denmark/Finland)
The Featherweight - Robert Colony (USA) 
Nowhere [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Simone Massi (Italy/Switzerland) 
Hesitation Wound [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selman Nacar
film profile
]
- Selman Nacar (Turkey/Spain/Romania/France)
Tatami [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Guy Nattiv, Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Georgia/USA)
Heartless [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Nara Normande, Tião (Brazil/France/Italy)
An Endless Sunday [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Parroni
film profile
]
- Alain Parroni (Italy/Germany/Ireland) 
City of Wind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France/Mongolia/Portugal/the Netherlands/Qatar) 
Explanation for Everything [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gábor Reisz
film profile
]
- Gábor Reisz (Hungary/Slovakia) 
Gasoline Rainbow - Bill Ross, Turner Ross (USA) 
For Night Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Rouzet
film profile
]
- Céline Rouzet (France/Belgium) 
Housekeeping for Beginners [+see also:
film review
interview: Goran Stolevski, Alina Serban
film profile
]
- Goran Stolevski (North Macedonia /Poland/Croatia/Serbia/Kosovo)
Shadow of Fire - Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan) 
Dormitory [+see also:
film review
interview: Nehir Tuna
film profile
]
- Nehir Tuna (Turkey/Germany/France) 

Orizzonti Extra

Phantom Youth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Luàna Bajrami (Kosovo/France)
Forever, Forever [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Buryachkova
film profile
]
- Anna Buryachkova (Ukraine/Netherlands) 
The Rescue - Daniela Goggi (Argentina/USA) 
Day of the Fight - Jack Huston (USA) 
In the Land of Saints and Sinners [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Robert Lorenz (Ireland) 
Felicità [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Micaela Ramazzotti (Italy) 
Pet Shop Boys [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Schnabel
film profile
]
- Olmo Schnabel (USA/Italy/UK/Mexico) 
Stolen - Karan Tejpal (India) 
The Dreamer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anaïs Tellenne
film profile
]
- Anaïs Tellenne (France)

Orizzonti Shorts

Aitana - Marina Alberti (Spain)
Sea Salt - Leila Basma (Czech Republic)
A Short Trip - Erenik Beqiri (France)
Et si le soleil plongeait dans l’océan de nues - Wissam Charaf (France/Lebanon)
Wander to Wonder - Nina Gantz (Netherlands/Belgium/France/UK)
The Meatseller - Margherita Giusti (Italy)
Dive - Aldo Iuliano (Italy)
Area Boy - Iggy London (UK)
Cross My Heart and Hope to Die - Sam Manacsa (Philippines)
In The Shadow of The Cypress - Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani (Iran)
Bogotá Story - Esteban Pedraza (Colombia)
Sentimental Stories - Xandra Popescu (Germany)
Short Story - Wu Lang (China)

(Translated from Italian)

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