MONDAY, 13 NOVEMBER
PROGRAM | MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13
TRIBUTE TO GIANNI MINÁ
“Gianni Minà – Una vita da giornalista”
TRIBUTE TO NICO CIRASOLA
“Odore di pioggia”
THE PROTAGONISTS OF EUROPEAN CINEMA: ROMAN POLANSKI
“Rosemary’s Baby”
ULIVO D’ORO COMPETITION – CRISTINA SOLDANO AWARD
MARIO VERDONE AWARD
“Romantiche” by Pilar Fogliati
FESTIVAL OFF
The third day of the 24th edition of the European Film Festival, directed by Alberto La Monica, is dedicated to tributes and films in competition. On Monday 13, the Festival celebrates the figure of Gianni Minà, considered among Italy’s greatest journalists, with a screening of the docufilm Gianni Minà – Una vita da giornalista (2022) by Loredana Macchietti Minà, scheduled for 8:30 p.m., Room 2. The film narrates the professional story of the journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker who has made numerous reportages for RAI, devised television programs and shot documentary films about personalities who have had a deep impact on society. His story tells of the evolution of Italian television and journalism, which have profoundly changed in recent years. The film is a Format and Coralcine production, in collaboration with Rai Cinema and Film Commission Torino Piemonte. Cosimo Damiano Damato will host the meeting with the director along with Stefano Cristante. Also on the program, at 5 p.m., at Liberrima Bookstore, is the presentation of Minà’s posthumous book Fame di Storie, Nicolucci ed., 2023, which includes life experiences and memories through photographs and testimonials. Loredana Macchietti Minà, his wife will be present with Cosimo Damiano Damato.
In Room 4, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a tribute to Nico Cirasola, an independent filmmaker and longtime friend of the Festival who recently passed away, with the screening of Odore di pioggia, which kicks off this retrospective dedicated to him.
Also starting today is the retrospective devoted to this year’s “Protagonist of European Cinema,” Roman Polanski, among French filmmakers who are most beloved by audiences and critics alike. In Room 2, 6 p.m., Massimo Causo will present Rosemary’s Baby (USA, 1968): the story of a couple, Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse and their relationship with their new neighbors, an elderly couple. While Guy begins to visit them assiduously, Rosemary soon shows her displeasure with their intrusiveness. However, when the two decide to have a baby, Rosemary’s pregnancy proves particularly difficult evidenced by a constant state of malaise. After giving birth, the woman learns from her husband that the baby was stillborn. Unconvinced by what Guy has told her, she sneaks into the neighbors’ house one evening and catches them with her husband and others conducting a “black mass” around a cradle…
In Room 1, 9:00 p.m., will be a tribute to Micaela Ramazzotti, this edition’s “Protagonist of Italian Cinema,” with the screening of A Whole Life Ahead by Paolo Virzì (2008). The film follows Marta, a well-read recent college graduate with a quiet disposition, who lands a job in a call-center for a company that sells household appliances: She then ventures into a world filled with young callers and obsessed salespeople, motivational dances, corporate jingles, awards, applause and arranged punishments….
In Room 3, 6:00 p.m., as part of the Ulivo D’Oro – Cristina Soldano Award Competition, ten European films in national premiere will be presented, one of which is Woman on the Roof by Anna Jadowska (Poland, France, Sweden, 2022). The film tells the story of Mirka, a 60-year-old woman, who seems to have a normal life, until one morning it takes an unexpected turn: she carries out a bank robbery with a kitchen knife.
In Room 3, 8:30 p.m., Vasil by Avelina Prat (Spain, Bulgaria, 2022) will be screened. A retired person at a local bridge club agrees to temporarily host a well-respected Bulgarian immigrant with whom he begins to strike up a friendship. As the stay lingers, the differences between the two will begin to become apparent.
In Room 5, at 6:00 p.m., for the 14th Mario Verdone Award – which is reserved for a young Italian filmmaker who has particularly distinguished himself or herself within the last year for his or her premiere feature – Pilar Fogliati’s Romantiche will be featured. The film revolves around the affairs of four girls who live in and around Rome and all four are trying to find their place in the world in their own way.
In Room 1, 6:30 p.m., the first of the films in the showcase for the Lux Audience Award will be presented: Fallen Leaves (Finland, Germany, 2023) by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. The film tells the story of two lonely people who meet one night on the street and their attempt to find their first, only and last love in life. A delicate tragicomedy believed to be lost; it is the fourth part of Kaurismäki’s working-class trilogy (Shadows in Paradise, Ariel and The Match Factory Girl).
In Room 5, 8:30 p.m., for the Cinema & Reality showcase, the documentary Le Spose di BB by Stelvio Attanasi and Paola Leone (2023) will be screened. The film aims at raising awareness, preventing and combating gender-based violence and features only men. It collects the testimonials of some participants in workshops on violence against women carried out in Italy since 2022.
In Room 4, from 9 p.m., space will be given to Festival in corto with Il Barbiere Complottista and Notte romana by Valerio Ferrara (SNC, Rome); Las memorias perdidas de los árboles by Antonio La Camera (Emidio Greco Award); Era ora! by Valerio Manisi (Puglia Show, out of competition); Victoria by Karolina Porcari (Puglia Show, out of competition); Jazzo Inferno by Gerry Ciccimarra (Puglia Show) and Nostos by Mauro Zingarelli (Puglia Show).
Finally, at 9 p.m., for Festival Off, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Italo Calvino’s birth, the reading room of the Bernardini Library of the Convitto Palmieri will host Sul far del giorno, a reading with live music from the stories of the influential Italian writer with Sax & live electronics by Marco Castelli and narrator Adriano Giraldi. A show where musical notes and sound effects interact as protagonists with the voice and words of the stories. Free admission.
Devised and organized by the Cultural Association “Art Promotion,” the European Film Festival 2023, within the framework of the Apulia Cinefestival Network 2023, is an initiative carried out by the Puglia Region, Apulia Film Commission and ARET PugliaPromozione as part of the intervention “Promoting the Puglia of Cinema 2023” with resources from the POR Puglia 2014/2020 – Axis VI – Action 6.8. and released resources from POR Puglia 2000-2006, Measure 2.1.
It is also realized with the support of the Ministry of Culture-Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual.
Recognized by the Ministry of Culture as an “event of national interest,” the Festival is a member of the Association of Italian Film Festivals and is organized with the support of the Municipality of Lecce and the University of Salento, and in collaboration with Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, S.N.G.C.I., FIPRESCI, S.N.C.C.I., National Short Film Center, Lecce Biblio-Museum Pole, and the Rotary Club of Lecce.
Media partner: Cinecittà News, Cineuropa, FRED Film Radio
Technical partners: Acqua Orsini, Agricole Vallone, Augustus Color, Futuro Remoto Gioielli, Liberrima, Quarta Caffè, Rai Cinema Channel
Media partners: Cinecittà News, Cineuropa, FRED Film Radio
Technical partners: Acqua Orsini, Agricole Vallone, Augustus Color, Futuro Remoto Gioielli, Liberrima, Quarta Caffè, Rai Cinema Channel
