Archivi tag: tff39

“C’È UN SOFFIO DI VITA SOLTANTO” BY MATTEO BOTRUGNO AND DANIELE COLUCCINI

Article by Cristian Cerruti

Translated by Francesca Luna Lombardo

“Why can’t a woman be named Luciano?”
Lucy Salani

C’è un soffio di vita soltanto, presented in the section “Fuori concorso / L’incanto del reale”, tells the story of Luciano Salani, the oldest living transsexual in Italy, whose existence was marked by survival in the Dachau concentration camp. Starting from the idea of making a documentary on the story of a survivor, Botrugno and Coluccini find themselves faced with a character who goes far beyond any possible categorisation. Lucy is fluid, multifaceted, alien. A fluidity that emerges right from her choice to keep her first name: Luciano. The proposal to officially change her name to a feminine one, made several times to Lucy, has always received a negative answer. The name is not seen as a label to define her gender, but represents the memory of her parents, a memory that forges Lucy Salani’s personality.

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“BULL” DI PAUL ANDREW WILLIAMS

«Se sopravvivo, vi uccido tutti» . Bull (Neil Maskell), rivolto ai suoi nemici, che un tempo erano la sua famiglia, pronuncia queste parole che sembrano costituire il banale prologo per un classico revenge movie. Il regista britannico, però, stupisce il pubblico del TFF39 e presenta una straordinaria opera che ha la sua essenza non nell’insperato e disperato bisogno di vendetta, ma in una spietata ricerca di salvezza.

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“NUMBER ONE” DI GIANNI BUFFARDI

Grazie al perfetto restauro del Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, particolarmente attento a curare le tracce sonore (fondamentali per il senso del film), e alla presentazione nella sezione “Back to Life” del TFF39, il pubblico torinese ha potuto vedere, molto probabilmente per la prima volta, Number One di Gianni Buffardi (1973). L’opera, nonostante faccia della confusione il suo marchio distintivo e la sua ragion d’essere, è pervasa da una lucida follia e da una chiarezza d’intenti spesso sconosciuta ai “poliziotteschi” che in quel periodo inondavano i cinema italiani.

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“RAGING FIRE” BY BENNY CHAN

Article by Sara Longo

Translated by Mattia Prelle

The incorruptible agent Cheung Sung-bong (Donnie Yen) and his former partner Yau Kong-nao (Nicholas Tse) portray two faces of the same coin: facing each other is more or less like watching your own reflection through an opaque glass without recognizing yourself. Their destinies, indissolubly interwoven, could have switched, if they would have made different choices a long time ago. But now that the past is knocking at their door the time has come at last to settle the score.

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“UNE JEUNE FILLE QUI VA BIEN” BY SANDRINE KIBERLAIN

Article by Marco Ghironi

Translated by Elèna Bellino

The radiant lightheartedness of youth in 1940s France, scourged by anti-Semitic laws. “Une jeune fille qui va bien” is the debut full-length movie by Sandrine Kiberlain, presented in May during la Semaine de la Critique in Cannes and in competition at the Torino Film Festival 39.

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“RAMPART” BY MARKO GRBA SINGH

Article by Francesco Dubini

Translated by Federica Maria Briglia

The film director looks at the empty flat where he has lived for twenty-five years. It is for sale, it is bare. The walls, empty and livid, evoke memories, raise deep investigations through the memories. The movie begins with an empty house that fills itself, in the half-light, with the past childhood of those who lived there. Presented in the section “International competition.Doc” at the TFF39, Marko Grba Singh’s documentary reaches a powerful level of intimacy. Being almost a cinematographic biography, Rampart grasps and re-elaborates the director’s personal history and with it a painful extract of the history of his country: the war that, like a sudden storm, striked Belgrado on March 24th of 1999.

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“EXTRANEOUS MATTER – COMPLETE EDITION” BY KENICHI UGANA

Article by Lisa Cortopassi

Translated by Rebeca Tirgovetu

Extraneous Matter – Complete Edition starts as an intimist movie with a “modest” (but steady) black and white 4:3 format and the familiar image of a bonsai, followed by a close-up of a sleeping girl who, once she has woken up, makes herself some coffee. Later the film, once the episodic nature is revealed, unexpectedly expands its gaze and leaves the domestic dimension of the girl’s house (who is not the main character) to turn to other characters and to the big city. In this way, it extends its reflection to a universal dimension deeply related to the demons of the contemporaneity.

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“LINGUI” BY MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN

Article by Alessandro Pomati

Translated by Giulia Baldo

The Chadian word “Lingui” implies the precept of harmonic cohabitation between the members of a community. It is not specified by how many members said community should be constituted, and the harmony ruling their cohabitation can be broken by various types of factors. In the case of Amina (Achouackh Abakar), a hawker who sells baskets made from wire netting, and of her daughter Maria (Rihane Khalil Ario), the factor is the unwanted pregnancy of the latter, which could potentially destroy their lives. On the one hand, the terror of suffering ostracism from the conservative Muslim community which they are part of, on the other hand the prospect, even more terrifying, of the girl having an abortion against her will. Despite the apparent inability of achieving such a venture, Maria is determined not to keep the baby, and Amina will not be able to remain by her side.

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“CALYPSO” BY MARIANGELA CICCARELLO

Article by Giulia Seccia

Translated by Federica Maria Briglia

Mariangela Ciccarello’s movie, shown in the “Italiana.doc” section, presents itself as a documentary that follows the daily life of two actresses, Angela and Paola. It is focused on their rehearsals of dialogues about the mythical characters of Ulysses, Circe and Calypso. However, the dimension of reality constantly and gradually overflows into a dreamlike dimension, enveloping the protagonists’ bodies and fading their contours along with their words, especially when they act. In those moments, the Italian language of their dialogues mixes with the Neapolitan dialect of their considerations on the mythical characters.

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“BERGMAN ISLAND” BY MIA HANSEN-LØVE

Article by Enrico Nicolosi

Translated by Elena Soldà, Lorenzo Papa

With “Bergman Island”, the French director Mia Hanen-Løve made a film that turns into a deep (self)reflection on the creative process of the artist, taking up the themes dear to her and questioning her style of screenwriting. To do this, she creates a real alter ego, which has the features of Chris Sanders (Vicky Krieps), director and screenwriter. Together with her husband and filmmaker Tony (Tim Roth), Chris spends a summer writing her next film on the Swedish island of Fårö, famous residence of Ingmar Bergman.

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“PICCOLO CORPO” BY LAURA SAMANI

Article by Elio Sacchi

Translated by Mirko Giumentaro

Laura Samani starts from the base elements with which she gets her hands dirty: water and blood, milk and tears. But above all, she draws on the rituals and popular beliefs of a fishing village in Friuli, an area far from the advent of “progress” and “modernity” (light bulbs seem like a joke), suspended in an almost ahistorical, mythical, and archaic time. Agatha’s stillborn daughter cannot be baptized and she is therefore destined to wander eternally in limbo, unless her mother sets off to reach the distant and cold Val Dolais, where there is a sanctuary of breath where the miracle takes place: the stillborn child is brought back to life for the duration of one breath, enough to make it able to be baptized and named.

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“LA TRAVERSÉE” BY FLORENCE MIAILHE

Article by Valentina Velardi

Translated by Lorenzo Papa

Evanescent and at the same time material, the expressive universe that animator Florence Miailhe gives form to with La traversée succeeds in combining a fairy-tale atmosphere with crude realism, restoring with extreme clarity the strength of a universal and archetypal story, that of those who are forced to abandon their own land and, as exiles, struggle to get somewhere else.

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“LE BRUIT DES MOTEURS” DI PHILIPPE GRÉGOIRE

Infiniti titoli di testa, accompagnati da immagini di macchine da corsa che, sgommando, compiono infiniti giri su sé stesse, aprono il primo lungometraggio di Philippe Grégoire, presentato in concorso al TFF39. Il film, non rinunciando a un pungente umorismo, racconta uno squarcio della vita di Alexander Mastrogiuseppe (Robert Naylor), cresciuto a Napierville, sperduto e dimenticato paesino canadese, che si allontana dal suo luogo natale per lavorare alla dogana tra U.S.A. e Canada. Grégorie racconta lo stesso percorso che ha vissuto lui passando dalla vita nel suo paesino natio al lavoro come doganiere per potersi pagare gli studi di cinema. La migrazione verso un mondo altro è solo uno dei punti di contatto tra la vita del regista e quella del protagonista. Grégorie si concentra infatti proprio su quell’humus culturale cui lui stesso è legato grazie alla pista per gare automobilistiche che i suoi nonni costruirono a Napierville.

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“BERGMAN ISLAND” DI MIA HANSEN-LØVE

La regista francese Mia Hansen-Løve, con Bergman Island, costruisce un film che, riprendendo i temi a lei cari e mettendo in discussione il suo stile di sceneggiatura, si trasforma in una profonda (auto)riflessione sul processo creativo dell’artista. Per far ciò, mette in scena un vero e proprio alter ego, che ha le fattezze di Chris Sanders (Vicky Krieps), regista e sceneggiatrice. Chris, in compagnia del marito Tony (Tim Roth), anch’egli cineasta, si stabilisce per un’estate a scrivere il suo prossimo film sull’isola svedese di Fårö, celebre residenza di Ingmar Bergman.

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“LINGUI” DI MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN

In lignua ciadiana, la parola “Lingui” indica il precetto di convivenza armonica tra i membri di una comunità. Non è specificato da quanti membri tale comunità debba essere costituita, e l’armonia che regola la loro convivenza può essere spezzata da fattori di vario tipo. Nel caso di Amina (Achouackh Abakar), venditrice ambulante di cesti ricavati da reti metalliche, e di sua figlia Maria (Rihane Khalil Ario) si tratta della gravidanza indesiderata di quest’ultima, che potrebbe potenzialmente distruggere le loro esistenze. Da una parte il terrore di subire l’ostracismo della comunità islamica conservatrice di cui fanno parte, dall’altra la prospettiva ancora più spaventosa di far abortire la ragazza. Nonostante l’apparente impossibilità di portare a compimento una simile impresa, Maria è determinata a non tenere il bambino e Amina non potrà non starle accanto.

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“PICCOLO CORPO” DI LAURA SAMANI

Laura Samani parte da elementi bassi con cui si sporca le mani: l’acqua e il sangue, il latte e le lacrime. Ma soprattutto attinge dai riti e dalle credenze popolari di un villaggio di pescatori in Friuli, una zona lontana dall’avvento del “progresso” e della “modernità” (le lampadine sembrano uno scherzo) sospesa in un tempo quasi astorico, mitico e arcaico. La figlia di Agata, nata morta, non può ricevere battesimo e quindi è destinata a vagare in eterno nel limbo; salvo che la madre si metta in cammino per raggiungere una lontana e fredda val Dolais, dove si trova un santuario del respiro in cui il miracolo accade: il bambino nato morto viene riportato in vita per il tempo di un respiro così che possa essere battezzato e avere un nome.

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“LA CHICA NUEVA” BY MICAELA GONZALO

Article by Laura Anania

Translated by Gianluca Zogno

Micaela Gonzalo joins TFF39 with her first full-length film, which follows a young Argentinian girl called Jimena (Mora Arenillas) along her journey towards self-awareness and personal growth.

Her path is marked by the dualities between solitude and companionship, between individual and universal and between family and work. The protagonist must solve these issues in order to find her own place in the world.

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“SING 2”, BY GARETH JENNINGS

Article by Gaia Verrone

Translated by Stefania Frassetto

The opening film of the 39th edition of the Turin Film Festival is Sing 2, written and directed by Gareth Jennings, in its international preview. In this new chapter, Buster Moon and his friends set out on a journey that takes them from the small reality of the Moon Theatre to the sparkling Redshore City, where they look for a new adventure and a new opportunity to prove their worth to the world, by getting the chance to perform at the Crystal Tower Theatre. Although, at first, they achieve what they wished for, thanks to the unhoped-for help of fate, soon they are crushed by hardships hiding behind every corner. And to make the situation even more complicated, there is the “white” lie told by Moon to appear more impressive to the eyes of the tycoon producer of the show: this lie will lead him to risk much more than just the realization of his goals, forcing him to face the reality of a competitive and, at times, cruel industry.

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“ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE” BY THEO ANTHONY

Article by Cristian Cerutti

Translated by Francesca Luna Lombardo

One eye turns to the camera. The camera enters to examine the optic nerve from which the connections to the brain branch off, while the cold, unaffected voice-over explains how it is responsible for reconstructing the data received. However, the reconstruction is never impartial. It’s always influenced by the cultural structures in which we are immersed. The opening sequence of All Light, Everywhere immediately reveals the intention behind the visual essay directed by Theo Anthony: to overturn the dialectic between observer and observed. At the same time it demonstrates how, historically, it has been concealed by observers to hide the connection between dialectics and the management of power.

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“LA TRAVERSÉE” DI FLORENCE MIAILHE

Evanescente e al contempo materico, l’universo espressivo a cui l’animatrice Florence Miailhe dà forma con La traversée riesce a coniugare atmosfera fiabesca e crudo realismo, restituendo con estrema evidenza la forza di una storia universale, archetipica, quella di chi è costretto ad abbandonare la propria terra e, esule, si barcamena per arrivare altrove.

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