VENICE 2023 Orizzonti / Orizzonti Extra
Promising debuts and stories of lost adolescence to adorn the Orizzonti showcase
- The Venice Film Festival section dedicated to discovering new talent will screen 18 films in competition and 9 in Orizzonti Extra

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.
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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