Tutti gli articoli di Claudia Cominelli

English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“THE SIN” BY HAN DONG-SEOK

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Article by Emidio Sciamanna

Translation by Francesca Borgheresi

Lurking in the shadows of a social pessimism and often embodied by the human values of science and justice, the search for rationality takes the ruthless and tragic shape of a great evil, which is a demon that feeds itself with collective discrimination and mutual hate. The second full-length film by Han Dong-seok, The Sin, presented in the category “Crazies” of the 41st edition of Torino Film Festival, suggests a crazy concept of the original sin, where fear and the obsessive desire of revenge insinuate in the mechanic physicality of multiple moving bodies. 

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“ROMA BLUES” BY GIANLUCA MANZETTI

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Article by Sara Longo


Translation by Lara Martelozzo

In the oneiric world of Al (Francesco Gheghi), the single most important thing is to make his bed every morning. This is because accomplishing the first task of the day will motivate him to achieve subsequent goals. Inspired by what Admiral McRaven said in his famous speech, Al adds that it is in a properly tucked-in bed that good dreams are born. Too bad there are no blankets to tuck into in the hot, suffocating Rome where he lives.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023

“BIRTH” BY YOO JI-YOUNG

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Article by Davide Gravina

Translation by Sebastiano Liso

After the credits of Birth, which was screened in competition at the 41st Torino Film Festival, the clatter of computer keys cannot halt. Jay (Han Hae-in) is a promising young, talented writer, undoubtedly ambitious, not fearful at all and encouraged by the career path she decided to pursue. She cannot and does not know how to do anything else. Jay’s partner Geonwoo (Lee Han-ju) is an English teacher at a private institute who seems content to live in his girlfriend’s shadow, helping her as best he can and giving up his own individual happiness. An uneven love story, only seemingly stable, but, in fact, deeply unhealthy. Their balance is challenged when she discovers she is pregnant, despite the continued use of contraceptives.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“EARTH MAMA” BY SAVANAH LEAF

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Article by Giorgia Andrea Bergamasco

Translation by Eleonora Torrisi


The topic of motherhood has been and still is often addressed in cinema through the most diverse perspectives and sensibilities. Anglo-American filmmaker Savanah Leaf’s approach stands out in the contemporary landscape for its unique freshness and delicacy, making her Earth Mama – based on the short documentary The Heart Still Hums, co-directed with Taylor Russell – an extraordinarily powerful debut feature film.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“HERE” BY BAS DEVOS

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Article by Federico Lionetti

Translation by Sebastiano Liso

Stefan (Stefan Gota), is a Romanian mason who suffers from insomnia, shaggy-faced and always wearing shorts. ShuXiu (Liyo Gong), is a lively Chinese biologist, sweet-eyed and often absorbed in her work. Both wander in a nocturnal Brussels and in its surroundings, between the long shots of under-construction buildings and details of mosses and windblown trees; they wander, get lost and find each other in a contemporary world, a biome in which the relationship of dependency between human and nature progresses into a stable understanding.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“LA PRÁCTICA” BY MARTÍN REJTMAN

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Article by Enrico Nicolosi

Translation by Alessia Licari

For his 8th feature-length film, La Práctica (“The practice”), Martín Rejtman leaves his beloved Argentina for neighbouring Chile. The main character, Gustavo (Esteban Bigliardi), goes through a journey that is similar to a spiritual retreat trying to reconnect with meditative yoga. Both the director and the main character – who is sort of an alter ego of his creator – will see their innovative dreams clash with reality. As it often happens in the Argentinian director’s films, whatever happens to the helpless characters doesn’t really have a substantial effect in their lives.

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English version, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“CERRAR LOS OJOS” by Víctor Erice

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Article by Fabio Bertolotto

Translation by Camilla Lippi

In Víctor Erice’s movies – four in a career that began fifty years ago – cinema, both as a physical place and as a technical and expressive device, has always played a central role. Her first feature film, The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena, 1973), told the story of a little girl who was shocked after watching Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931). In El sur (The South) (1983) the protagonist discovered her father’s betrayal in a hall where movies featuring the man’s lover were shown. Cinema as an influential art device, capable of having concrete effects on reality, can also be found in Cerrar los ojos (Close your eyes), the director’s latest work.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“Camping du lac” by Éléonore Saintagnan

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Article by Elisa Gnani

Translation by Carolina Criscuolo


Climate change is not a fairy tale, and the director makes this clear. Éléonore Saintagnan immerses us in an unusual atmosphere, almost as if it was a science fiction film. I prefer to label it as a fictional feature teetering on the edge of reality — a film that calls into question a monster to shed light on a pressing issue: the drying up of lakes.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“Sconosciuti puri” by Valentina Cicogna, Mattia Colombo

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Article by Valentina Testa

Translation by Giorgia Legrottaglie


In Milan’s Labanof, the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Odontology at the University of Milan, Professor Cristina Cattaneo takes care of bodies without identities, which she calls “pure strangers.” These same bodies give their name to Valentina Cicogna and Mattia Colombo’s documentary: Sconosciuti puri (“Pure strangers”), which is dedicated to the struggles of forensic anthropologist’s work.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“RETAKE” BY KÔTA NAKANO

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Article by Romeo Gjokaj

Translation by Sebastiano Liso

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. This idea, which can be traced back to the Heraclitean philosophy of Panta Rei, “everything flows,” well represents the meta-cinematic spirit of Retake, Japanese director Kôta Nakano’s debut. The film was presented at the Nuovimondi (“New Worlds”) section of the 41st Torino Film Festival.

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English version, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“RETRATROS FANTASMAS” by Kleber Mendonça Filho

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Article by Fabio Bertolotto

Translation by Fabio Castagno


In Kleber Mendonça Filho’ debut film, O Som ao Redor (“Neighbouring sounds”, 2012), there’s a scene in which two people visit an abandoned cinema and the sound recalls films that used to be shown there in the past. Through this dimension, images manifest themselves as spectres that want to communicate with the living, echoing in crumbling and forgotten places. The last work of the Brazilian director, Retratos fantasmas (“Pictures of ghosts”) – presented at the International Documentaries Competition of the 41 st edition of the Torino Film Festival – is based on the same concept of returning images.

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English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“PELIKAN BLUE” BY LÁSZLÓ CSÁKI

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Article by Marco Di Pasquale

Translation by Carolina Criscuolo

It’s tough to picture what thousands of young people must have felt when, after years under the regime, they suddenly had the chance to cross their country’s borders and freely explore cities like London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, or Amsterdam. It’s not surprising that László Csáki wanted to create an animated documentary to leverage drawing possibilities and convey the feelings of an entire generation in Hungary during the 1990s, following the breakup of the People’s Republic and the Soviet Union.

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English version, Film (English), TFF 41 - 2023, Torino Film Festival

“Soleils Atikamekw” by Chloé Leriche

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Article by Giorgia Andrea Bergamasco

Translation by Chiara Rotondo

The second feature film by Quebecois director Chloé Leriche, Soleils Atikamekw (Atikamekw Suns) portrays the profound intergenerational pain of the Atikamekw community in Manawan, Quebec. The film’s delicate aesthetics and careful formal work are not intended to sugarcoat the film, but rather to testify the strength and beauty of a community that, though destroyed, attempts to rebuild its memory.

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