ITALY

I LIMONI D’INVERNO

2023 – DCP – color – 105’

Direction: Caterina Carone

Screenplay: Anna Pavignano, Mario Luridiana, Remo Tebaldi, Caterina Carone, Alessio Galbiati

Cinematography: Daniele Ciprì

Editing: Enrica Gatto

Set design: Giuliano Pannuti

 Original music: Nicola Piovani

Costumes: Chiara Ferrantini

Cast: Christian De Sica (Pietro), Teresa Saponangelo (Eleonora), Luca Lionello (Domenico), Max Malatesta (Luca), Francesco Bruni (Nicola), Agnese Nano (Diana), Anna Iodice (Anna), Sara Celestini (model), Sergio Basile (doctor), Alessandro D’Ambrosi (neurologist), Teresa Tantini (female collector), Cristian Flammini (male collector) Annalisa D’Ambrosio (mamma Pietro Pietro’s mother), Filippo Maria Pierangeli (young Pietro)

Producers: Massimo Di Rocco, Luigi Napoleone

Production: Vision Distribution – Società del gruppo Sky, Bartlebyfilm, Agresywna Bandain

Italian distribution: Europictures

synopsis

Thanks to the proximity of their respective terraces, two strangers absorbed with their gardening activities begin to weave a profound dialogue, which helps them ease the pain of something serious, a secret, that each of them conceals from oneself and those around them. In that sort of suspended limbo between the earth and the sky, far from the hustle of the city, Pietro and Eleonora teach each other to follow their hearts, to believe one more time in the “possibility of being happy,” before they once again part ways.

the director: Caterina Carone

Caterina Carone (1982, Ascoli Piceno) is a director, screenwriter, teacher and painter. She began her career as a documentary filmmaker, receiving significant awards such as the Solinas Award – Documentary for Cinema, the award for Best Italian Documentary at the Turin Film Festival and a David di Donatello nomination for the documentary Valentina Postika in attesa di partire. She competed at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea with her first feature film Fräulein – A Winter Tale. For La Lettura del Corriere della Sera she published a graphic novel entitled Le ali. She co-wrote and directed the short film Il sole e le altre stelle for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation scholarships (MAECI) and Italian Association of Film Industries (ANICA). I limoni d’inverno is her second feature film. She is currently teaching documentary and filmmaking while working on her next film.

director’s statement

“I stumbled upon this story somewhat by chance. I encountered it as we do with the most important people in our lives, when you cross someone’s deep gaze and recognize in their eyes something that resonates with you and the people who illuminate your existence. In the story of Peter and Eleanor, I heard this universal and mysterious melody echoing. I felt authentic emotions, the fragility of the human experience. Us and others, in a continuous play of mirrors, nuances and colors – the infinite colors of being in the here and now. I measured myself against the harshness of a dramatic film, with painful and real events, to confront a dramaturgy that imposes rigor, essentiality and a loving gaze, seeking empathy with others and the even more difficult one with ourselves, our limitations and fears. The film also has sweet and joyful tones, because life is never monotonous but a continuous layering of tears and smiles.

I hope that the protagonists of this story, their eyes, their hearts, could live in all the people who meet them, just as they live in me and the actors who portrayed them.”

filmography

2005 Numero 5 (doc)

2006 Polvere (doc)

2007 Le chiavi per il paradiso (doc)

2009 Valentina Postika in attesa di partire (doc)

2016 Fräulein – Una fiaba d’inverno 

2023 I limoni d’inverno

awards and festivals

2023 Festival del Cinema di Roma – Grand Public