Article by Giorgia Andrea Bergamasco
Translation by Cinzia Di Bucchianico
Amy Adams fills the shoes of a monstrous new mother in Marielle Heller’s latest film, based on Rachel Yoder’s homonymous novel and presented out of competition for its Italian premiere at the Torino Film Festival.
Continua la lettura di “NIGHTBITCH” BY MARIELLE HELLERArticle by Marilina Rita Monzo
Translation by Aurora Monteleone
Controluce – the documentary by Tony Saccucci, presented at the 42nd Torino Film Festival and produced by Luce Cinecittà – is an intense reflection on the life and work of Adolfo Porry-Pastorel, one of the leading figures in early 20th-century Italian photography. The movie skillfully combines archival footage and fictional sequences, creating a visual dialogue that surprises with its harmony and guides the viewer into a distant yet remarkably contemporary era.
Continua la lettura di “CONTROLUCE” BY TONY SACCUCCIArticle by Beatrice Bertino
Translation by Linh Carrara
Jenny (Emma Drogunova) and Bubbles (Paul Wollin) share a relationship where love and addiction are intertwined. Despite her pregnancy, Jenny cannot give up methamphetamine, which she uses daily with her partner. The situation is further precipitated when Jenny receives an order to execute a prison sentence, which forces her to report to a prison institution.
Continua la lettura di “VENA” BY CHIARA FLEISCHHACKERArticle by Pietro Torchia
Translation by Giorgia Mazzù
Premiered at the latest Toronto International Film Festival, The Assessment is set in a dystopian near future where humanity is the primary cause of the world’s destruction and the driving force behind the climate changes that have ravaged it. In response to this catastrophic situation, an extreme measure has been taken: the creation of a semi-dictatorial society, a fabricated paradise where every action is controlled, and individuals—deemed incapable of managing their freedom—are now confined by a dense web of constraints.
The story follows a couple (played by Himesh Patel and a surprising Elizabeth Olsen) who appear to enjoy an idyllic life in this regimented world, despite its bleak and impersonal atmosphere. Wide exterior shots reveal a barren landscape, and their futuristic villa exudes sterility, painted in the coldness of artificial colours. In this new, surreal, impersonal society, the couple wishes to have a child but must first pass an assessment: they are required to live with a woman (Alicia Vikander) who will evaluate their suitability to become parents.
The protagonists endure and overcome a series of trials that grow increasingly senseless and extreme. Set against an oppressive rhythm, the haunting soundtrack accompanies the couple through a spiral of madness, where free will is sacrificed in the name of a greater good and an ostensibly perfect society. Yet, one final choice remains: to continue living in an artificial world dominated by illusion and control, or to return to the scarred real world, but as free individuals.
Through its sci-fi lens, The Assessment tackles universal themes such as climate change and free will, while also addressing intimate and personal issues like motherhood. By drawing on genre conventions, it provokes thought and invites reflection on these pressing and timeless questions.
Article by Orazio Oztas
Translation by Martina Perrero
The American Dream is a central theme in American cinema. “Dreamers” manifest themselves in different forms: on the one hand, character groups, such as those of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, whose mafia gangs offer a stark depiction of the lust for wealth and success; on the other hand, lonely dreamers, individuals willing to go to any lengths to pursue great ideals. However, stories that reflect the American Dream outside United States’ borders are often overlooked, demonstrating how these universal aspirations transcend cultures and geographies. Moreover, there are narratives inspired by this theme that do not resort to exaggeration but achieve a sober and realistic balance.
Leggi tutto: “THE BLACK SEA” BY DERRICK B. HARDEN AND CRYSTAL MOSELLLEAnd it is in the film The Black Sea that these dynamics become most prominent. The protagonist, Khalid, a young African American man with high ambitions, dissatisfied with his job at a bar in Brooklyn, decides to quit after being contacted by a Bulgarian woman on Facebook, who offers him ten thousand euros to spend time with her. However, upon his arrival in the Balkans, he discovers that the woman is deceased, thus initiating his financial exile in an unfamiliar land. Directors Derrick B. Harden and Crystal Moselle follow the journey of Khalid, played by Harden himself, as he tries to integrate into a foreign community, exploring themes of individual aspiration and loneliness, similar to those addressed by Kubrick in Barry Lyndon. The adjustment process in the small town bathed by the Black Sea, which the film’s title refers to, proves to be complex; Khalid must take any available job to survive. His situation has drastically changed: necessity now guides his choices. However, he develops a friendship with a Bulgarian woman, and together they manage to merge their ambitions; this will allow them to find a balance that will enable them to achieve their desired success without erupting into conclusions of ethical and moral decay.
Article by Greta Maria Sorani
Translation by Martina Bigi
What are we willing to do, and under what conditions are we willing to live, in order to stay true to our nature? This is the question that Ponyboi (2024) – the second feature film by Colombian director and screenwriter Esteban Arango, following Blast Beat (2020) – seems to ask the audience.
Continua la lettura di “PONYBOI ” BY ESTEBAN ARANGOArticle by Elisa Gnani
Translation by Federica Riccardi
The memory of Benedetto Croce’s last Christmas serves, in Pupi Avati’s film, as a pretext to illustrate the biography of one of the greatest key players of Italian history. From political depth to talent in studies, from the vocation for freedom to philosophical vision, the documentary – presented out of competition at the forty-second edition of the Turin Film Festival – opens up an original glimpse into the life of the Italian philosopher and senator.
Continua la lettura di “UN NATALE A CASA CROCE” BY PUPI AVATIArticle by Emidio Sciamanna
Translation by Vittorio Cavalli
The Kyiv of 1968, depicted by Stanislav Gurenko and Andrii Alf’erov in Dissident, is not a vibrant urban symphony like the avant-garde Berlin of Walter Ruttmann, but a grey, oppressive sprawl of streets and buildings constantly hit by a violent and unrelenting rain, a ghost of the Soviet Union that looms, heavy and suffocating, over the shoulders of the Ukrainian population. In the dissonant flow of a city in motion, the dreams, anxieties, and illusions of individuals abandoned to their fate intertwine, tormented by solitude and in perpetual conflict between a peaceful struggle for independence and a burning desire for rebellion.
Continua la lettura di “DISSIDENT” BY STANISLAV GURENKO AND ANDRII ALF’EROVArticle by Emidio Sciamanna
Translation by Giuditta Portaro
What is racism for you? Behind this simple question posed to elementary school’s children, centuries of discrimination and prejudices can hide, reiterated by the fear of the unknown, of what is unfamiliar or what, due to ignorance and dullness, one fears to know. However, the pure and innocent gaze of children tends to observe the world differently from adults, turning a frequently disappointing reality into the most imaginative and idyllic of fairy tales. It is precisely with the classic “once upon a time” that Julie Deply’s Les Barbares begins: a play, a ruthless farce around which twirl characters bordering on the surreal, grotesque masks of contemporary society.
Continua la lettura di “LES BARBARES” BY JULIE DELPYArticle by Davide Lassandro
Translation by Giorgia Mazzù
A white corridor. A blinding, almost divine light. A choir of voices that seem to emanate from the beyond. Mario Balsamo introduces the Anemos hospice in Turin in his latest documentary, In ultimo—a concise yet poignant title that encapsulates the mission pursued with care and dedication by the hospice staff: guiding individuals toward understanding their illness and embracing that condition in which we all stand as equals. Every shot is overexposed and prolonged, a deliberate choice that transports the viewer into a suspended, timeless dimension entirely removed from ordinary reality.
Continua la lettura di “IN ULTIMO” BY MARIO BALSAMOArticle by Marilina Rita Monzo
Translation by Irene Pezzini
L’amore che ho (The love I’ve got) by Paolo Licata, presented at the 42nd Torino Film Festival, celebrates Rosa Balisteri, an emblematic voice of Sicily and a symbol of social struggle and resistance. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Luca Torregrossa – the singer’s nephew – goes beyond merely recounting her musical career, but it also fully explores her personal battles and the most private and painful moments of her life.
Continua la lettura di “L’AMORE CHE HO” BY PAOLO LICATAArticle by Alessandra Sottini
Translation by Federica Riccardi
On an ordinary day, Manca Košir explains to his family the secret of the enchanting cherry blossom: its beauty captivates the observer, but its brittleness and the passage of time make quickly fade that instant of wonder. The eternity of being is enclosed in the celebratory activity of life, day by day. Slovenian director Nina Blažin, who has experienced first-hand the loss of a loved one, feels close to the joyful and combative personality of the protagonist of The Silence of Life, filmed between 2019 and 2023.
A play on oppositions, or a lyrical oxymoron, seems to suggest the title of the film in competition in the international documentary section of the 42nd Turin Film Festival. The Silence of Life seems to tell us that silence is not always the only weapon available against the inevitability of death: stricken by throat cancer, Manca opposes this adverse destiny with specific speech exercises.
The camera probes and observes this woman who is as tenacious as she is aware of her condition. However, the documentary gaze is not ‘cooled down’ by the usual techniques of tailing and approaching, because it is Manca herself who makes the viewer live her story: despite the oppressive weight of time passing by, it is herself who inhabits the space with gestures and words and colours the atmosphere with her clothes (overall red, yellow and pink).
‘Death is part of our existence and we must take as such’. This is the indelible trace left by Manca Košir, then.
Article by Greta Maria Sorani
Translation by Federica Lozito
“The figure of the shaman arose in primitive societies to solve basic problems for the survival of societies. He tends to assume the behavior of an ecstatic character, acting as a bridge between spiritual and earthly energies, a channel for the divine will and for the forces of nature that he makes available to humanity through love and understanding”. This is an academic description of the shaman, the leading figure in City of Wind (2023), the feature debut by Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, which was presented in the Horizons section of the 80th Venice Film Festival.
Continua la lettura di “CITY OF WIND” BY LKHAGVADULAM PUREV-OCHIRArticle by Carlotta Profico
Translation by Silvia Matera
After committing a robbery, a bandit discovers he has extraordinary powers that will lead him to choose whether to save himself or others. In an era seemingly dominated by selfishness, Nero, the directorial debut of well-known actor Giovanni Esposito, focuses on sacrifice and caring for others.
Continua la lettura di “NERO” BY GIOVANNI ESPOSITOArticle by Romeo Gjokaj
Translation by Aurora Monteleone
The passing trains offer something unexpectedly precious to young Dé (Big Jaum). The movement of the carriages, their metallic and continuous rhythm, evokes the flow of life. For this reason, whenever he feels the need, Dé climbs the bridge overlooking the tracks with his grandmother Almerinda (Teca Pereira), who suffers from Alzheimer’s. Thus, both can silently watch the trains pass beneath them, giving themselves the illusion of being above their problems, if only for a brief moment.
Continua la lettura di “KASA BRANCA” BY LUCIANO VIDIGALArticle by Tommaso Del Latte
Translation by Martina Bigi
With the movie Without Blood, it is clear that civil battles are still the focal point of Angelina Jolie’s directorial career. However, the result fails to achieve the emotional and narrative depth one might expect. Based on a novel by Turin-born writer Alessandro Baricco, the film promises to delve into the psyche of the characters, who are scarred by the violence of the war, but its occasional abstract approach and the lack of genuine emotional development make it an intellectual exercise rather than a truly engaging experience.
Continua la lettura di “WITHOUT BLOOD” BY ANGELINA JOLIEArticle by Ludovico Franco
Translation by Federica Riccardi
Through the metropolitan network of Paris, the most faithful companion of human life roams about: death. Having become famous with Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi – illustrator and cartoonist even before being a director – assigns the role of absolute protagonist to the Grim Reaper in her latest film. In all its forms and declinations, we see her disrupt the lives of different characters, woven into a vast plot whose interweavings slowly emerge.
Continua la lettura di “PARADIS PARIS” BY MARJANE SATRAPIArticle by Brigitta Mariuzzo
Translation by Martina Perrero
Tendaberry explores the signs that time, as it passes, leaves on our lives and the environment that sourrounds us. These marks may be tangible and visible to anyone, or they may manifest themselves in a less obvious way and remain in the background of our daily lives.
Continua la lettura di “TENDABERRY” BY HALEY ELIZABETH ANDERSONArticle by Giorgia Andrea Bergamasco
Translation by Silvia Matera
While there are numerous accounts of the painful devastation caused by wars, genocides and natural disasters, less focus is given to the actions that capture the essential human effort towards rebirth and self-reconstruction.
Continua la lettura di “UN MILIONE DI GRANELLI DI SABBIA” BY ANDREA DEAGLIOArticle by Davide Lassandro
Translation by Linh Carrara
Films that are devoted to the terrible consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) nowadays constitute a new cinematic genre, this genre is used by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes in his first feature-length film, My Dead Friend Zoe. The Film is a black comedy which deliberately tries to mitigate a subject that is so sensitive, especially for Americans, and too often overlooked. The director himself, who enlisted shortly before November the 9th and retired in 2008, is a former Army paratrooper. Moreover, in addition to making social-impact short films and commercials for various companies, he has been trying his hand at studying cinema for these past fourteen years thanks to the support provided by the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act.
Continua la lettura di “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE” BY KYLE HAUSMANN-STOKES
