Archivi categoria: Film (English)

“FIN DE SIGLO” BY LUCIO CASTRO

Article by: Giulia Leo
Translated by: Giorgia Bellini

The end of the century mentioned in the title of Lucio Castro’s work is an uncertain end, a feeling of uncertainty that manages to craft a simple and delicate story about the encounter of two souls that discover each other all over again.

It is a warm, quiet Spanish night, Ocho (Juan Barberini) is spending his vacation in Barcelona, exploring and taking pictures. When he gets back to his apartment, he sees Javi (Ramon Pujol) from the balcony and invites him upstairs, where the physical attraction between the two takes over. A sudden spark of passion, that seems to be meaningless. But Castro revolves things around, he brings us back in time and makes us realise that the fling between the two men is actually the story of a universal love, not bound to any space or time.

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“PRÉLUDE” BY SABRINA SARABI

Article by: Silvia Gentile
Translated by: Lucrezia Villa

Director Sabrina Sarabi’s first feature film, in competition at Torino Film Festival, on the surface seems to belong to the traditional coming-of-age films.

David (Louis Hofmann) is a young pianist, who studies at a prestigious music academy tutored by cold and strict Professor Matussek (Ursina Lardi). In order to achieve his dream and be accepted into The Juilliard School, he spends up to eight hours a day practicing without rest. When he meets Walter (Johannes Nussbaum) and Marie (Liv Lisa Fries), a couple with whom he soon after forms an uncommon friendship, his already fragile mental state gets affected. After stealing his friend’s girlfriend, David gets romantically involved with Marie, however, he devotes himself to piano only, and his lack of commitment to their love story causes it to come to an end abruptly. 

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“EL HOYO – THE PLATFORM” BY GALDER GAZTELU-URRUTIA

Article by: Roberto Guida
Translated by: Giorgia Bellini

Remember, my dear Sancho, who has more needs to do more.

I totally agree. I just wish Quijote could explain that to hoyo’s “guests”.

But Goreng (Ivan Massagué) knows it well, in fact he chose to take Cervantes’ book with him. He shares the Tower’s 48th floor room with the old Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), but every month they wake up on a different floor. Apparently, only who is on the highest floor have access to food, while people on the lower floors have to feed on the leftovers, and the poor devils at the bottom are forced to cannibalism in order to survive – or, even worse, to commit suicide due to the lack of food. Still, the number of these levels remains unknown.

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“OHONG VILLAGE” BY LUKE LUNGYIN LIM

Article by: Fabrizio Spagna
Translated by: Cecilia Malanima

Ohong Village, director’s debut film, is the intimate portrayal of the everyday life of a Taiwanese family. Due to its detailed development, understated technique, hasty images and story editing, it seems to be more of a documentary than a feature movie.

It talks about a highly skilled and extremely clever boy who has just got back home to Taiwan, to his family and his longlife friend. It talks about lies, about (weak) symbols, and about incredibly powerful and emotional sounds.

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“TITO” BY GRACE GLOWICKI

Article by: Silvia Gentile
Translated by: Chiara Franceskin

Not only as the protagonist in the film Raf (Harry Cepka), Grace Glowicki also participates in Torino Film Festival as a director with her first feature film, Tito.

Tito (interpreted by Grace Glowicki herself) is a misfit, an outcast who, after having suffered violence, lives isolated in his house with sparing furniture. He is haunted by scary sounds and imaginary monsters that seem to be in ambush wherever he is. Tito is also tormented by a physical illness that prevents him even from eating. Suddenly a “friendly neighbour” (Ben Petrie) – as he is presented in the opening credits – appears in his house. He talks incessantly, and Tito feeds him, makes him take drugs, and, for a while, he seems to get him out of his solitude and fear, but actually he will reveal himself as another of his executioners.

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“SPACE DOGS” BY ELSA KREMSER AND LEVIN PETER

Article by: Laura k. Barbella
Translated by: Gabriele Cepollina

So bold and natural is the mankind’s urge to explore new worlds. It is what features the process of evolution, that depends on the right combination of curiosity, need and audacity: from the first monkey that descended of its tree, up to the first man who walked on the surface of the moon. Nonetheless, if you really want to adventure the unexplored, it is not necessary to be pushed, changing your own point of view is just enough.

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“NOW IS EVERYTHING” BY RICCARDO SPINOTTI AND VALENTINA DE AMICIS

Article by: Sirio Alessio Giuliani
Translated by: Anna Benedetto

Debut film of two Italian directors, Spinotti and De Amicis, Now is Everything was made thanks to an Italian-American indie production, starring the talented Anthony Hopkins, Madeline Brewer and Camille Rowe. It is a rather complex film with various experimental elements in it, paving the way for two possible interpretations. 

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“RAF” BY HARRY CEPKA

Article by: Noemi Castelvetro
Translated by: Viola Locci

The young director Harry Cepka takes part to the TFF37 with his debut feature film. He explores the power dynamics in interpersonal relationships. “It took me five years of tears, sweat and efforts to make this film.” says Cepka to introduce his work, which is the result of the collaboration with the actress Grace Glowicki (of which he produces Tito in 2019) who interprets Raf.

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“L’APPRENDISTATO” BY DAVIDE MALDI

Article by: Valentina Velardi
Translated by: Alice De Vicariis

After Frastuono, presented at the TFF in 2014, Davide Maldi makes the second chapter of a trilogy on adolescence. The film, presented in the section TFFDOC/italiana, starts from a clear premise: the search for a context where teens are encouraged to learn a profession at an early age, and so grow up faster. For this reason, Maldi decided to follow the first school year of an hospitality institute class composed of five students.

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“SIMPLE WOMEN” BY CHIARA MALTA

Article by: Giulia Leo
Translated by: Selene Novaro Mascarello

It’s 1989 and television is broadcasting footage of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena’s deaths. Federica (Jasmine Trinca) is spending Christmas with her family when she has her first epileptic seizure. A few years later she is a teenager, obsessed with the cult movie Simple Men (Hal Hartley, 1992) and with Elina Löwensohn’s character, who suffers from the same neurological disorder. Their fates are destined to intertwine when Federica, now an adult and a film director, meets the Rumanian actress in Rome. She offers her a part as herself in a biopic set in Bucharest; despite her initial reluctance, the actress accepts, hoping to regain some of her long-lost fame.
Simple Women is Chiara Malta’s debut film; the director’s intent is made clear from the very beginning, with an intermixture of different registerswithin a meta-cinematic frame in which the lines between reality and fiction are blurred.

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“I GIORNI E LE OPERE” BY FRANCESCO DONGIOVANNI

Article by: Ada Turco
Translated by: Viola Locci

Francesco Dongiovanni’s documentary, I giorni e le opere, competes at TFF in the Italian.Doc section. It is about the meeting between two souls. Peppino is a quiet countryman who moves on the blurry line between the past and the present. Dongiovanni follows him paying attention not to trample on that fine line which divides the two dimensions, and that seems to survive only in Peppino. One of the most important features of the film is the breeder’s skillful work, but the director’s touch is also remarkable: the silent long shots – even when they are empty – are characterized by the swinging of the hand-held camera. Thanks to this technique, horizons imperceptibly bend and dissolve, and the loneliness of the different locations appear even more meaningful.

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“SWARM SEASON” BY SARAH CHRISTMAN

Article by: Roberto Guida
Translated by: Chiara Franceskin

Hawaii is a beautiful and dramatic microcosm: the economy of the island is based on millionaire incomes that come from tourism. But inland, far from beaches the villages for vacationers, indigenous people face their dependencies on the “resources”, while the islanders fight battles for the survival of all of us.

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“BEATS” BY BRIAN WELSH

Article by: Lorenzo Radin
Translated by: Cecilia Malanima

Glasgow, 1994. That’s where the fourth film by the Scottish director Brian Welsh, Beats, takes place. Specifically, during the introduction of the act that banned gatherings of twenty or more people listening to music characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.

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SOLDATI’S DAY

Article by: Arianna Vietina
Translated by: Giorgia Bellini

Mario Soldati was an all-round author, a cultured man who has dedicated himself to literature, cinema, television and journalism. He has been the writer and the director of his own life. Born in Turin in 1906, he died in 1999 and, on the twentieth anniversary of his death, we’re talking about him again. Who was Mario Soldati? Why do we keep talking about him? Do we keep on making the same mistake of underestimating him?

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“L’UOMO RACCOGLITORE” BY DEMETRIO GIACOMELLI

Article by: Gianluca Tana
Translated by: Anna Benedetto

After winning best Italian documentary for Diorama at the 35th edition of the Torino Film Festival, Demetrio Giacomelli is back in competition at Turin with his new film L’uomo raccoglitore (The gatherer man). 

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“PINK WALL” BY TOM CULLEN

Article by: Cristina Danini
Translated by: Selene Novaro Mascarello

Jenna (Tatiana Maslany) and Leon (Jay Duplass) met in college; he wants to be a photographer, she hasn’t made up her mind yet, although Leon believes that she has a promising career as a producer ahead of her.

Jenna and Leon are in a loving, committed relationship; they have been together for six years when they finally notice the wall dividing them.

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“MIENTRAS DURE LA GUERRA” BY ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR

Article by: Maria Bruna Moliterni
Translated by: Lucrezia Villa

Alejandro Amenábar returns to his homeland, the marvellous Salamanca, to film his new movie: Mientras dure la guerra (While at War). The city, home to a prestigious university, is the setting of the internal conflict the former chancellor Miguel De Unamuno went through after he supported the military revolt against the Spanish Republican government. When the military junta’s purges started taking place in 1936, Unamuno did not use his position to denounce the violence and the abuse of power, as a matter of fact he did not take a stand. However, he had to face reality,his family and friends, and his troubled conscience soon after.

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“NOUR” BY MAURIZIO ZACCARO

Article by: Siro Alessio Giuliani
Translated by: Francesca Massa

Does it make sense, especially in this time, to make a film about a phenomenon as complex and controversial as migration? According to the director Maurizio Zaccaro, it does, as long as you are aware that what you are telling is a universal story.

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“TOMMASO” AND “THE PROJECTIONIST” BY ABEL FERRARA

Article by: Maria Bruna Moliterni
Translated by: Alice De Vicariis

The controversial and provocative American director Abel Ferrara is present in the section Festa Mobile of the Torino Film Festival with two films: Tommaso and The Projectionist. The former is a story of redemption, the latter of determination.

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“WET SEASON” BY ANTHONY CHEN

Article by: Samuele Zucchet
Translated by: Chiara Franceskin

Wet Season is the second work by Anthony Chen, a Malaysian director who already won the Camera d’Or in Cannes in 2012 with Ilo Ilo. It is the monsoon season in Malaysia, and rains don’t want to stop. There are bodies of water that reflect and amplify the state of mind of the characters who populate this film.

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