Languages Archives: Italian

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People dancing in a vintage dance hall. Two women at center screen dance together.

The Beautiful Summer La bella estate

  Laura Luchetti

  Italy     111 minutes

Synopsis

Turin, 1938. Young Ginia has just moved from the countryside to the big city and takes a job at a dressmaker’s atelier. She demonstrates talent, and with the promise of a successful career, the future feels wide open. But war looms, casting shadows over the present and creating a sense of restlessness and unease. Desperate for adventure, Ginia befriends Amelia, who introduces her into a bohemian world of impetuous artists. Sensual and provocative, Amelia is different from anyone Ginia has ever known, opening her up to a world of new possibilities. During her “beautiful summer,” Ginia will surrender to her first great love and find the courage to be her true self.

Inspired by the 1949 novella of the same name by celebrated author Cesare Pavese (whose third novella in the same trilogy inspired Michelangelo Antononi’s Le amiche), The Beautiful Summer is steeped in the warm and glowing tones of radiant youth. Laura Luchetti elicits magnetic performances from the always sensitive Yile Yara Vianello (an Alice Rohrwacher regular also seen in La Chimera and Corpo Celeste) and radiant newcomer Deva Casel as two young women coming to terms with their own power and taking control of their destinies.

 Italian with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Giovanni Pompili, Luca Legnani
  •   Laura Luchetti
  •   Simona Paggi
  •   Diego Romero Suarez Llanos
  •   Yile Yara Vianello, Deva Cassel, Nicolas Maupas. Alessandro Piavani, Adrien Dewitte, Cosima Centurioni, Gabriele Graham Gasco. Anna Bellato, Andrea Bosca
  •   Francesco Cerasi
  •   Kino Produzioni, 9.99 Films, Rai Cinema, Lucky Red, True Colours, Tapelessfilm

Sponsors

Film Supporters

Logo: Italian Cultural Institute - 200x100Logo: Consulate General of ItalyLogo: Cinecittà 288x60

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A clergyman sits on a golden throne, holding an alterboy in his lap. They are surrounded by more members of the clergy.

Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara Rapito

  Marco Bellocchio

  Italy, France, Germany     134 minutes

Synopsis

A shocking, emotionally wrenching melodrama taken straight from the pages of history, Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara tells the story of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna who was stolen from his parents to be raised by the Catholic Church in 1858. Edgardo was secretly baptized when he was a baby, according to his nurse, stoking anti-Semitic fears that he would be “sacrificed” by his parents for this transgression. His parents try desperately to get their son back, but the conspiracy to claim the child for Catholicism goes all the way to Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon).

Veteran director Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket) handles Edgardo’s story with a blend of righteous anger and sumptuous craftsmanship, for a film that makes a lasting impression both through its story and its style.

 Hebrew, Italian with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Beppe Caschetto, PaoloDel Brocco, Simone Gattoni
  •   Francesca Calvelli, Stefano Mariotti
  •   Francesco Di Giacomo
  •   Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni
  •   Fabio Massimo Capogrosso
  •   Maurizio Feverati, Alessio Lazzareschi
  •   Kavac Film
  •   https://cohenmedia.net/product/kidnapped

Sponsors

Film Supporters

Logo: Italian Cultural Institute - 200x100Logo: Consulate General of ItalyLogo: Cinecittà 288x60

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A group of colorfully dressed young people celebtate together.

La Chimera

  Alice Rohrwacher

  Italy, France, Switzerland     133 minutes

Synopsis

English archaeological scholar Arthur has the uncanny ability of intuiting where to find hidden artifacts. Recently released from an Italian prison, he returns to a small Tuscan village; there, he reunites with a ragtag band of misfits who search for and unearth Etruscan relics buried with the dead. When the group encounter a treasure of immeasurable value, their attempts to traffic the objects bring their actions into sharp focus, and they must question their role in the plundering of history.

Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lázzaro) returns to the Festival with her signature rich and atmospheric storytelling, creating a dreamlike world teeming with ghosts and memory, a timeless space in which ancient history and the present become inextricably intertwined.

  

 Italian with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Carlo Cresto-Dina, Paolo del Brocco, Alexandra Henochsberg, Pierre-François Piet, Gregory Gajos, Amel Soudani, Michela Pini, Olga Lamontanara
  •   Alice Rohrwacher
  •   Nelly Quettier
  •   Hélène Louvart
  •   Josh O'Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato
  •   Eli Bush, Jeff Deutchman, Alessio Lazzareschi, Tom Quinn, Michael Weber
  •   Tempesta

Sponsors

International Competition Program Sponsor

John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation

Film Supporters

Logo: Italian Cultural Institute - 200x100Logo: Consulate General of ItalyLogo: Cinecittà 288x60

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A person with a mustache, wearing blush and frills, smiles over their shoulder behind them.

Lubo

  Giorgio Diritti

  Italy, Switzerland     175 minutes

Synopsis

Lubo, a traveling busker, is conscripted into the Swiss army to defend against a potential German attack. While serving, he receives the news that his wife has died and his three small children have been taken by the state as a part of a national reeducation program for Yenisch children. He flees his unit, adopts a new identity, and begins a desperate search to reunite his fractured family.

Featuring stunning production design and a sterling performance from Franz Rogowski (Transit, Passages), the film tracks Lubo’s odyssey as he uncovers the shocking truth about his children. Based on real-life events, the film is both an emotional character study and a penetrating historical epic.

 Italian, Jenisch, Swiss-German with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Marco Cohen, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, Giorgio Diritti, Francesca Scorzonii, Christof Neracher, Claudio Falconi, Alberto Fusco, Andrea Masera
  •   Giorgio Diritti, Fredo Valla
  •   Paolo Cottignola (AMC BFE), Giorgio Diritti
  •   Benjamin Maier
  •   Franz Rogowski, Christophe Sermet, Valentina Bellè, Noémi Besedes, Cecilia Steiner, Joel Basman
  •   Marco Biscarini
  •   Simone Bachini, Alessandro Mascheroni
  •   Indiana Production, Aranciafilm, Rai Cinema, hugofilm features, Proxima Milano

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Within a maze, a man on a ladder leans over a hedge.

After Work

  Erik Gandini

  Sweden, Italy, Norway     81 minutes

Synopsis

In his wry and insightful new film, Festival alum Erik Gandini (Videocracy, The Swedish Theory of Love) chronicles the past, present, and future of labor. We meet today’s workaholics — a hilarious American motivational speaker; a tragic South Korean office worker — as well as those on the opposite end of the spectrum. These include grossly underemployed young Italians and ordinary Kuwaiti citizens who receive hefty paychecks for sitting in offices doing nothing.

After Work asks big questions: When A.I. and robots take over the global workforce, what is the fate of human industry? Is the promise of universal basic income a blessing or a curse? The film offers few answers, instead using touches of humor, memorable characters, and evocative cinematic images to create an intoxicating and provocative exploration of humanity’s relationship with work, how our jobs define us, and what happens when they’re gone.

 English, Italian, Norwegian with subtitles 

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Jesper Kurlandsky
  •   Johan Söderberg
  •   Fredrik Wenzel
  •   Johan Söderberg
  •   Fasad Production AB

Sponsors

Documentary Program Sponsors

Logo: WTTW (2019)Cynthia Stone Raskin