VENEZIA 2018 Giornate degli Autori in collaborazione con CINEUROPA il meglio del cinema Europeo.

Rithy Panh, Joachim Lafosse e Stefano Savona alle Giornate degli Autori
di Vittoria Scarpa

24/07/2018 - La 15a edizione della sezione parallela alla Mostra si svolgerà a Venezia dal 29 agosto all’8 settembre, con 11 film in concorso, eventi speciali e Jonas Carpignano presidente di giuria.

Un ‘festival nel festival’ ricco e variegato, con proiezioni, eventi speciali, incontri con gli autori e momenti di riflessione sul cinema, la creatività e l’identità europea. E’ quanto promette la 15a edizione delle Giornate degli Autori, la prestigiosa e vitale sezione autonoma guidata da Giorgio Gosetti che si svolgerà parallelamente alla Mostra di Venezia dal 29 agosto all’8 settembre 2018.

Undici i film in concorso, tra opere prime, seconde e di cineasti affermati, di cui la metà diretti da donne. Si partirà con Rithy Panh (candidato all’Oscar 2013 per L’immagine mancante e la sua coproduzione Cambogia-Francia, Les Tombeaux sans noms, che, attraverso la storia di un uomo che va alla ricerca delle tombe dei suoi familiari sterminati dai Khmer rossi, si interroga sul senso della memoria. Un western femminile è Continuer di Joachim Lafosse (Belgio-Francia), con Virgine Efira, primo adattamento letterario (dal romanzo omonimo di Laurent Mauvignier) per il regista di À perdre la raison e Dopo l’amore. La francese Claire Burger debutta ‘in solitaria’, dopo il premiato Party Girl, con C’est ça l’amour, racconto della vita di un uomo (interpretato da Bouli Lanners), che in assenza di sua moglie deve occuparsi di due figlie adolescenti in crisi. L’italiano Valerio Mieli torna invece a Venezia, dopo Dieci inverni nel 2009, con Ricordi?, una lunga storia d’amore raccontata attraverso i ricordi, ‘un fantastico viaggio nella testa di ciascuno di noi’ lo definisce il delegato generale Gosetti, con protagonista Luca Marinelli.

Tra gli altri titoli europei in concorso, l’austriaco Joy di Sudabeh Mortezai, viaggio verso la libertà di una donna nigeriana costretta a prostituirsi, e l’opera prima franco-svizzera P.E.A.R.L. di Elsa Amiel, ambientato nel mondo del bodybuilding femminile. Coprodotto dalla Francia è il brasiliano Domingo, tragicommedia surreale co-diretta da Clara Linhart e Fellipe Barbosa (Gabriel e la montagna); belgo-canadese è il film di chiusura, fuori concorso, di Nicole Palo, Emma Peeters, una commedia che tratta in modo originale e ironico il tema del malessere dei trentenni.

Tra gli eventi speciali si segnala l’omaggio al tedesco Alexander Kluge, classe 1932, di cui sarà presentato in prima mondiale Happy Lamento, un film che Gosetti definisce ‘sorprendente, spiazzante, giovanile’, e poi Il bene mio dell’italiano Pippo Mezzapesa, il titolo cipriota The Ghost of Peter Sellers di Peter Medak e la produzione tedesca Why Are We Creative?, in cui Hermann Vaske pone ad artisti, intellettuali, premi Nobel e Oscar, nell’arco di trent’anni, la stessa domanda: Perché siamo creativi?

La rivelazione dell’anno Stefano Savona, premiato a Cannes per il suo La strada dei Samouni, animerà una delle ‘Notti veneziane’ alla Villa degli Autori, pensate quest’anno come uno spazio informale di dialogo e riflessione con gli autori, tra cinema e racconti personali. I Miu Miu Women’s Tales di questa edizione sono diretti da Dakota Fanning, al suo esordio come regista, e da Haifaa Al-Mansour (La bicicletta verde).

Si ricorda infine che ad assegnare il GdA Director’s Award 2018 saranno i 28 giovani europei selezionati nell’ambito del programma 28 Times Cinema, realizzato in collaborazione con Cineuropa. Quest’anno la giuria sarà guidata per la prima volta da un regista italiano, Jonas Carpignano, candidato nazionale all’ultima edizione degli Oscar con A Ciambra.

Tutti i film in concorso delle Giornate degli Autori 2018:

Les Tombeaux sans noms - Rithy Panh (Cambogia/Francia)
C’est ça l’amour - Claire Burger (Francia)
Continuer - Joachim Lafosse (Belgio/Francia)
Domingo - Clara Linhart, Fellipe Barbosa (Brasile/Francia)
Joy - Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria)
José - Li Cheng (Guatemala/Stati Uniti)
Mafax - Bassam Jarbawi (Palestina/Stati Uniti/Qatar)
P.E.A.R.L. - Elsa Amiel (Francia/Svizzera)
Ricordi? - Valerio Mieli (Italia/Francia)
Three Adventures of Brooke - Yuan Qing (Cina/Malesia)
Ville Neuve - Felix Oufour-Laperrière (Canada)
Fuori concorso
Emma Peeters - Nicole Palo (Belgio/Canada)

Eventi speciali
As We Were Tuna - Francesco Zizola (Stati Uniti/Italia)
Dead Women Walking - Hagar Ben-Asher (Stati Uniti, in collaborazione con il Tribeca Film Festival)
Goodbye Marilyn - Maria Di Razza (Italia)
Happy Lamento - Alexander Kluge (Germania)
Il bene mio - Pippo Mezzapesa (Italia)
The Ghost of Peter Sellers - Peter Medak (Cipro)
Why Are We Creative? - Hermann Vaske (Germania)

Notti veneziane
‘Carta bianca a Stefano Savona’
Il teatro al lavoro - Massimiliano Pacifico (Italia)
I villani - Daniele de Michele (Italia)
L’unica lezione - Peter Marcias (Italia)
One Ocean - Anne De Carbuccia (Italia)
Miu Miu Women’s Tales
Hello Apartment - Dakota Fanning (Italia/Stati Uniti)
The Wedding Singer’s Daughter - Haifaa Al-Mansour (Italia/Stati Uniti)

PREMIO LUX 2018
Styx, Woman at War e The Other Side of Everything in lizza per il Premio LUX
di David González.

24/07/2018 - I tre finalisti viaggeranno per tutto il continente. Il premio verrà consegnato al Parlamento europeo il 14 novembre.

Today, at the Giornate degli Autori press conference, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani and Coordinator of the Committee on Culture and Education Silvia Costa announced the three films in competition for the 2018 LUX Prize. Styx by Wolfgang Fischer (Germany/Austria), The Other Side of Everything by Mila Turajlić (Serbia/France/Qatar) and Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson (Iceland/France/Ukraine) have been chosen from the ten-title Official Selection.

The three films – all of which coincidentally put female characters in the spotlight – and the topical themes that they address are a call to action in these difficult times. Styx is the odyssey of a solitary woman into the blue of the ocean, tackling the vital challenge of immigration and refugees. The Other Side of Everything marks the second time in LUX Prize history that a documentary has featured among the three finalists and is a tender portrayal of a woman, whose story tells the history of her country and Europe as a whole, from a tumultuous political past to the dangers of nationalism. Meanwhile, Woman at War is an energetic, environmental and feminist saga, a call for civil resistance to fight for and save nature from industrial greed and hegemony.

The announcement followed the screening at Casa del Cinema in Rome of last year’s LUX Prize winner, Sámi Blood by Amanda Kernell. The film, which was also awarded with the Audience Mention at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival recently, was introduced to audiences by Silvia Costa.

The three films will become the core of the 2018 LUX Film Days in the autumn, and will be screened in more than 50 cities and festivals across 28 European countries. With each film subtitled in the 24 official languages of the European Union, every year an even wider audience will be able to discover these films and identify with the topics they address. This year’s LUX Film Days will again be organized by the European Parliament Liaison Offices, and thanks to the cooperation with Creative Europe, audiences throughout Europe can enjoy the unique cinematic events of simultaneous screenings: the movies will be screened in several theatres at the same time, connecting audiences via live interactive discussions with the filmmakers.

The winning title, voted for by the members of the European Parliament, will be further adapted for those with visual and hearing impairments. The winner – which will be announced on 14 November in Strasbourg – will also receive promotional support during its international release.

Lastly, this year’s participants in the 28 Times Cinema initiative will be attending LUX Prize events during the Giornate degli Autori at Venice, taking part in workshops and debates, before becoming the LUX Ambassadors in order to present the seventh edition of the LUX Film Days in their respective countries.

Diciannove in tutto i film della sezione dedicata alle nuove tendenze del cinema mondiale, che saranno valutati da una giuria presieduta dalla regista greca Athina Tsangari e composta dal regista americano Michael Almereyda, l’attrice iraniana Fatemeh Motamed-Aria, il critico cinematografico francese Frédéric Bonnaud, lo sceneggiatore egiziano Mohamed Hefzy, la regista canadese Alison Mclean e il regista italiano Andrea Pallaoro.

Tra i titoli selezionati, altri due film italiani, entrambe opere prime: Un giorno all’improvviso di Ciro D’Emilio, ‘un piccolo film che rischia di passare inosservato ma che, come Manuel l’anno scorso, potrebbe diventare un piccolo caso. Da non sottovalutare’, assicura Barbera; e La profezia dell’armadillo di Emanuele Scaringi, dalla graphic novel del fumettista Michele Rech, in arte Zerocalcare.

Dalla Francia arrivano i debutti di Mikhaël Hers (Amanda) e di Sarah Marx (L’Enkas). Il resto della selezione spazia in tutto il mondo, ma con una diffusa partecipazione europea: tra gli altri, La noche de 12 años, terzo lungometraggio dell’uruguayano Álvaro Brechner (una coproduzione Spagna/Argentina/Francia), l’opera prima autobiografica Deslembro di Flavia Castro (Brasile/Francia/Qatar) e il titolo kazako coprodotto da Polonia e Norvegia The River di Emir Baigazin.

Si segnalano inoltre l’israeliano Stripped di Yaron Shani (coprodotto dalla Germania), primo capitolo di una trilogia che svela, secondo Barbera, ‘un grande talento registico’, e il terzo film dell’autore palestinese Sameh Zoabi, Tel Aviv on Fire, una commedia satirica sui conflitti culturali tra israeliani e palestinesi, coprodotta da Lussemburgo, Francia, Israele e Belgio.

Infine, un cenno alla nuova sezione non competitiva Sconfini, dedicata alle opere senza vincoli di genere, durata e destinazione: da segnalare il nuovo film del fumettista Gipi, Il ragazzo più felice del mondo; Arrivederci Saigon di Wilma Labate, l’incredibile storia di una girl band in tour in Vietnam durante la guerra; e l’extended cut (189 minuti) di The Tree of Life di Terrence Malick.

I film della selezione Orizzonti 2018:
Sulla mia pelle - Alessio Cremonini (Italia) (film d’apertura)
Manta Ray - Phuttiphong Aroonpheng (Thailandia/Francia/Cina)
Soni - Ivan Ayr (India)
The River - Emir Baigazin (Kazakistan/Polonia/Norvegia)
La noche de 12 años - Álvaro Brechner (Spagna/Argentina/Francia)
Deslembro - Flavia Castro (Brasile/Francia/Qatar)
The Announcement - Mahmut Fazil Coşkun (Turchia/Bulgaria)
Un giorno all’improvviso - Ciro D’Emilio (Italia)
Charlie Says - Mary Harron (Stati Uniti)
Amanda - Mikhaël Hers (Francia)
The Day I Lost My Shadow - Soudade Kaadan (Siria/Libano/Francia/Qatar)
L’Enkas - Sarah Marx (Francia)
The Man Who Surprised Everyone - Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov (Russia/Estonia/Francia)
Memories of My Body - Garin Nugroho (Indonesia/Australia)
As I Lay Dying - Mostafa Sayyari (Iran)
La profezia dell’armadillo - Emanuele Scaringi (Italia)
Stripped - Yaron Shani (Israele/Germania)
Jinpa - Pema Tseden (Cina)
Tel Aviv on Fire - Sameh Zoabi (Lussemburgo/Francia/Israele/Belgio)

PALIĆ 2018
Neil Young • Programmatore, EFF Palić

‘L'idea è di rispondere a ciò che sta succedendo’ di Bénédicte Prot
23/07/2018 - Cineuropa ha incontrato il nuovo programmatore di EFF Palić, il critico cinematografico britannico Neil Young, per parlare dell'identità del festival.

Starting this year, for the 25th edition of the European Film Festival Palić, film critic Neil Young (The Hollywood Reporter, Sight & Sound, Tribune), also the former director of the Bradford International Film Festival and a consultant for such events as the Viennale, has been called upon to bring his distinctive eye and enthusiasm for fresh, daring, surprising offerings to two different programmers: the competitive Parallels and Encounters section, which gathers together Central and Eastern European films ‘touching on political and social topics in accessible and illuminating ways’, in Young's words, and Young Spirit of Europe, which screens movies in an open-air theatre and takes the public on a trip through a selection of ‘experimental, avant-garde, offbeat, underground and unclassifiable cinema from all over the continent’.

Cineuropa: What brought you to Palić? How would you describe the identity of the festival?
Neil Young: I first came here as a jury member in 2011. At the time, I didn't know much about Palić or Subotica in terms of culture, etc – although I had been interested in the ex-Yugoslavian area ever since I reviewed Bread and Milk by Jan Cvitković [who has a film here, Out of Competition, The Basics of Killing) back in 2001 at Tallinn, which took me to the Ljubljana Festival, which then led me to meet Serbian people, etc – but I've been here pretty much every year since then, and I've learnt more about the area.

Over the last 25 years, Palić has gradually developed as a film festival, of course, but in the last seven years, this part of the world has become a focus internationally, as a kind of geopolitical frontline between the EU and the non-EU. In 2011, the Hungarian border, just a few kilometers away from Subotica, was basically a metal pole that you went through – I remember an old lady cycling through – but as it became a key point where lots of migrants and refugees were crossing into Europe, now it's like a fortified military encampment, and ‘Fortress Europe’ is the new catchphrase, if you listen to people like Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. So Palić is a film event, but it is also part of this region, and you cannot ignore the fact that there are things happening that we are now at the epicenter of, which of course culture has to respond to.

Parallels and Encounters is in fact dedicated specifically to the Central and Eastern European film industries.

We are actually talking about a gigantic area extending from, let's say, Slovenia and the Czech Republic to Vladivostok – so that's half of Eurasia there, and in this gigantic area, we also decided to include Turkey. So diversity is the key word here. In this spirit, this year, we have selected three short films in the section, which hadn't been done before, as well as two documentaries. The idea is, again, to respond to what is going on in the world of cinema. What the artists do can be very different, from Slovenia to Murmansk, and funneling that into a limited number of programmers, that is the challenge – but if there are interesting artists making short films or documentaries [such as Radu Jude with The Dead Nation, which is the final film in the program, in agreement with Miroslav Mogorović, the other selector for the program, I'm choosing to respond to that. If the audience, in turn, is receptive, next year I might add some more short films. It's all about adjusting the balance and trying things. With a festival of this size, you get direct feedback, so if the audience don't like it, they will tell you.

The bold and surprising qualities of both of your programmer suggest that you are keen on bringing something new to the table. Is there a certain direction you would like to see the sections you are curetting take?

Obviously, there is a certain degree of autonomy for each programmer, but we have to work within the structure that the festival has developed over the years, as a team, also bearing in mind the fact that there are a dozen sections which are catering to different audiences – again, it's a very diverse festival – and that you have to work with them in mind, and think of the kind of audience that you can develop for the films. The movies that Nenad Dukić is showing in the evening at the big outdoors Summer Stage, which is beautiful, are mainly seen by local people and some holidaymakers, while obviously I get a very different audience at 10pm at the outdoors screenings showing more avant-garde, experimental cinema. What we want to do is keep that diversity and extend it, to get even more of everybody.

KARLOVY VARY 2018
Adele Tulli • Regista
‘Miro a generare prospettive per contrastare le narrative eteronormative’ di David González

17/07/2018 - KARLOVY VARY 2018: Abbiamo incontrato la filmmaker italiana Adele Tulli, che ha vinto l'Eurimages Lab Project Award a Karlovy Vary con il suo progetto Normal
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s industry events included the Eurimages Lab Project Award selection once again this year, boasting projects with concepts that go beyond traditional film methods and are based on international cooperation. A €50,000 prize was bestowed upon the project by Italian filmmaker Adele Tulli, entitled Normal and produced by FilmAffair, and depicting a journey through gender norms in contemporary Italy. We met up with her to discuss the film, still in the making.
Cineuropa: What is at the core of your project? What are its origins?

Adele Tulli: I began this project as a piece of PhD research four years ago. At the time, while the Italian Parliament was discussing several progressive issues such as gender education in schools and gay civil unions, the very word "normal" became omnipresent within the national public debate: it was being used by both the conservative groups encouraging the protests against the bills, and the organisations defending and promoting them. Both sides were somehow involved in defining polar-opposite ideas of what counts as "normal" – which gender roles and sexual preferences are worthy of a respectable social identity. My intention with the film was to articulate some of the thoughts and ideas regarding the everyday practices and routines that establish what is acceptable group conduct in terms of gender and sexuality. By sketching a portrait of the ritualised performance of femininity and masculinity during ordinary interactions, Normal looks at the daily spectacle of gender normativity through a slightly distorted yet intimate lens, exploring the contradictions and struggles that populate our existences, as we have to conform to society’s expectations.

How do you think your film will respond to the current issue of the representation of gender in art, and in cinema in particular?

The representation of gender in art and cinema has generated the most challenging, thought-provoking and revolutionary approaches as well as the most normative and even offensive ones. I think my film does not intend to offer any clear-cut responses, but rather aims to raise critical questions about how we construct and inhabit our identities as females and males, and what the internalized behaviors’, gestures, attitudes, roles and expectations are for each gender. Essentially, the film investigates the complex dynamics that shape people’s desires and identities, and it attempts to do so by using cinema as a form of art that can interrogate and challenge reality, rather than simply representing it.

You are one of two female professionals behind this project. Will the female experience be highlighted in it particularly?

For me, being a female director does not equate to having a specifically ‘feminine’ point of view, which is necessarily antagonistic to that of a male colleague. I do not believe in anything ‘essentially’ feminine or masculine. I think we need to fight in order to have more films directed by women simply because opportunities are not the same at the moment: despite women now being well represented in film schools, very few manage to get their first film made, and on average, women directors get lower budgets than their male counterparts. In Normal, my aim is to stimulate reflection on how both genders are constructed and performed by individuals in contemporary society, and how this process translates into several forms of oppression.

What are your views on the flagrant inequality between women and men in the film industry? How can we work to fix it?

The statistics on gender inequality in the film industry are disheartening. In almost every role – from directors to writers and cinematographers – women are underrepresented. But this is also true in so many other sectors. It is difficult to say in a few words how we can work to fix this, but I believe the first step in every change always starts with education. As I have the privilege to teach film students, I invest a lot of energy in creating a feminist learning environment (which for me includes not only what and how you teach, but also being aware of the power dynamics within the classroom). Then, of course, at the industry level there should be programmers encouraging equal gender representation in festival selections, juries, funding bodies and so on, to build a more inclusive industry.

You are interested in exploring this topic through creative documentary. What are the positive things that this approach can bring to the subject?

I consider documentary to be a ‘per formative act’ between images and the reality that they are supposed to represent. My approach to non-fiction does not necessarily pursue objective truths, but instead subjective perspectives. In other words, for me, documentary forms can be used to provoke a critical interpretation of the reality they observe. In my film, I aim to present a disorientating portrait of accepted ideas of normality, and to generate critical and open-ended perspectives to counter hetero normative narratives.
What will the Eurimages award help you with in particular? What do you still need in order to complete the film?

We are extremely happy and grateful to have won the Eurimages award because it will help us to complete the post-production of the film.