14/11/2005

The two winners for the 28th edition of the Villerupt Italian Film Festival’s jury prize, ex-aequo, were the satirical documentary Viva Zapatero! by Sabina Guzzanti and Sotto il sole nero by Enrico Verra.

Sold internationally by French company Wild Bunch, Viva Zapatero! was produced by the filmmaker and Valerio Terenzio Trigona for Studio Uno, Secol Superbo and Sciocco Produzioni. Distributed in Italy by Lucky Red, the film by Sabina Guzzanti, who denounced the control over television held by the Italian government leading to actors who are trenchant and journalists who are too critical, has already accumulated more than 1,6 million euros in eight weeks of exploitation. It will be released on French screens on December 21st, distributed by Haut et Court, with a print total of 50 prints.

For its part, Sotto il sole nero is produced by Brooklyn Films was put together thanks to support from the Italian Ministry of Culture. (MiBAC). First feature for Enrico Verra, released in Italy in the theatres in May, the film fits the current movement among young Italian filmmakers for tough realism, since it deals with the subject of immigration in San Salvario, a "ghetto quarter" in the suburbs of Turin where a young Italian will become friendly with a Nigerian, a Sénégalais and a Moroccan.

(Translated from French)