No less than 18 Italian actresses grace the extraordinary cast of Diamanti [+lire aussi :
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bande-annonce
fiche film], Ferzan Ozpetek’s fifteenth film which, having grossed upwards of 15 million euros at the national box office, has become the biggest commercial hit for the Turkish-born Italian director in his nigh-on thirty-year career. The film is the jewel in the crown in Italian international sales agent Vision Distribution’s line-up at the European Film Market (running 13 – 19 February), which is unspooling within the 75th Berlinale. Already sold in a number of territories, Diamanti is an Italian genre which boasts guaranteed appeal in almost all worldwide markets. Starring Luisa Ranieri, Jasmine Trinca and Stefano Accorsi among other names, the film is set in Rome at the end of the ‘70s, in a wholly female microcosm: the Canova sisters’ wonderful dressmaker’s, which specialises in costumes for the cinema and theatre worlds, which Oscar-winning costumer designers and great directors frequent, and where the queen of theatre, Alida, and the new promising star of the cinema world, Sofia, cross paths.

Jostling among Vision’s other market screenings in Berlin, there’s also the hotly anticipated new movie by Silvio Soldini, an author whose works have been characterised by a personal, modern approach and tenacious expressive originality ever since the resounding international success he enjoyed with Bread and Tulips in 2000. The Tasters [+lire aussi :
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interview : Silvio Soldini
fiche film] - a co-production between Italy, Belgium and Switzerland courtesy of Lumière & Co, Tarantula and tellfilm - tells the intriguing story of young Rosa who flees bombarded Berlin in the autumn of 1943 and stumbles across a small, isolated village which is home to Hitler’s headquarters, known as the Wolf’s Lair. She and several other young women subsequently find themselves taken from the village and tasting the Fuhrer’s meals. The cast includes Elisa Schlott, Max Riemelt and Alma Hasun.

Released with the tag line “The first film which parents can only watch if accompanied by their children”, the comedy Io sono la fine del Mondo by Gennaro Nunziante is another recent “phenomenon” at the Italian box office, taking close to 9 million euros purely through promotion across social networks and by word of mouth, without any press assistance. This movie has definitively launched the big screen career of young Sicilian actor Angelo Duro, who’s the most anti- politically correct and irreverent comedian of the moment. The film was produced by Indiana Production in league with Vision Distribution.

One incredibly well-known face around the world, by contrast, is that of James Franco, who leads the cast of Hey Joe [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Claudio Giovannesi (Piranhas [+lire aussi :
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interview : Roberto Saviano
fiche film], awarded the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay in Berlin 2019). The film sees the Oscar-winning director and actor stepping into the somewhat unassuming shoes of an American veteran who had a relationship with a young Neapolitan woman in the Second World War and who decides to return to Naples in the early ‘70s so as to get to know his son. The movie was produced by Palomar together with RAI Cinema and Vision Distribution.

Last but not least, rounding off Vision’s line-up is Bare Hands, a second work by Mauro Mancini (Thou Shalt Not Hate [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mauro Mancini
fiche film]) presented at the most recent Rome Film Fest. Produced by Eagle Original Content, Pepito Produzioni, Movimento Film and RAI Cinema, the film explores the ruthless and alien universe of extreme underground fighting, which can only end in the death of one the two challengers. The cast stars Alessandro Gassmann, Francesco Gheghi and Fotinì Peluso.