10/11/2008

Which is more absurd? The theatre of Samuel Beckett or the Italian distribution system, which prevents Davide Manuli’s Beket [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (winner of the Fipresci Prize at Locarno 2008) from being released in theatres?

Fortunately, the filmmaker (whose previous film, Girotondo, giro intorno al mondo, came out only on a DVD given out with a film magazine) could count on help from his co-producers Bruno Tribbioli and Alessandro Bonifazi of Blue Film. After the about-face of several distributors, the two decided they would release the film themselves, along with Gianluca Arcopinto.

Thus, Beket “should come out by January 2009, perhaps in Greece as well on the Mikrokosmos circuit,” says Manuli, who in the meantime is presenting it at festivals of independent cinema. Such as the 16th edition of Sulmonacinema, which ended Saturday with the film picking up a Special Mention from the jury.

Loosely based on Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot, Beket, originally intended for the landscapes of Spain’s Almeria desert, instead found its ideal settings in the abandoned mines of Sardinia, shot by Tarak Ben Abdallah in evocative black and white.

The moonscape locations are inhabited by the strange Freak (Luciano Curreli, Girotondo) and Jajà (Jérôme Duranteau), and a host of other surreal characters. Manuli could not have come up with a more heterogeneous cast, which includes actors Fabrizio Gifuni, musician Roberto “Freak” Antoni (who scored some of the soundtrack) and boxer Simone Maludrottu.

Made in four weeks (two for production and two for post), Beket – produced by Blue Film with Manuli’s Shooting Hope Productions for €65,000 – came about when Manuli got stuck on Doping, a project he has been developing for a long time and which finally seems will proceed.

“[Doping] is on cycling, on the blood of cyclists in every sense. And seeing how blood and cycling are tainted, this will be my first colour film,” said the director. He added that he would like to shoot “a poetic reinterpretation of Werner Herzog’s Every Man for Himself and God Against All in the former high security prison in Asinara”.

(Translated from Italian)