Cinema Made in Italy opens its 2023 edition in London 9th – 13th March 2023

Shopping Guides

Movies

Published on Wednesday, 08 March 2023 13:20

Last Updated on 08 March 2023

Monica Costa

0 Comments

Cinecittà, Institut Français and The Italian Cultural Institute in London have announced the full line up of films for the 13^th edition of CINEMA MADE IN ITALY which will take place at the Cine Lumiere between 9 and 13 March 2023.

CINEMA MADE IN ITALY showcases the best of Italian cinema with eleven new releases forming the heart of the programme all curated by CEO of Film London and British Film Commission, Adrian Wootton OBE. Audiences will have the chance to catch the cutting edge of Italian cinema with many films having their UK premiere as part of the festival as well as enjoying a classic of Italian cinema which this year is the cult comedy Fantozzi from 1975.

Highlights include breakouts from the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals such as Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains), L’immensità starring Penelope Cruz and Mark Cousins’ The March on Rome as well as the winner of European Film Award for Best Animation Interdit Aux Chiens et Aux Italiens (No Dogs Or Italians Allowed). All of these and more will screen at the Cine Lumiere as part of the festival with special guests attending throughout the festival. The full line up is listed below and synopses for each film can be found at the bottom of this release. 

• Fantozzi by Luciano Salce
• Il Colibrì (The Hummingbird) by Francesca Archibugi*
• Il Signore Delle Formiche (The Lord of The Ants) by Gianni Amelio*
• In Viaggio by Gianfranco Rosi*
• Interdit Aux Chiens et Aux Italiens (No Dogs or Italians Allowed) by Alain Ughetto
• Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains) by Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch
• L’immensità by Emanuele Crialese
• Margini (Margins) by Niccolò Falsetti*
• The March on Rome by Mark Cousins
• Notte Fantasma (Ghost Night) by Fulvio Risuleo*
• Siccità (Dry) by Paolo Virzì*
• Spaccaossa (The Bone Breakers) by Vincenzo Pirrotta*

* indicates UK premiere

It’s a shame that movie The Girl from Tomorrow (Primadonna) is not included in this line up because it’s released today in Italy and selected cinemas worldwide. Here you can read my interviews with the talents of this wonderful movie inspired by the story of a strong woman who successfully fought against her rapist in Italian court of law to get justice.

Tickets available from HERE.

 

CINEMA MADE IN ITALY – 2023 LINE UP

Fantozzi

An insignificant cog in the wheels of a large company, Fantozzi starts his days battling against time (he must clock in) and overcrowded buses; he continues half hidden behind piles of work dumped on him by his crafty colleagues. Things are no better at home. Or in his free time. The film follows the hilarious and sometimes desperate trials and tribulations of our anti-hero, as he tries to get on in life.

Il Colibrì (The Hummingbird)

This is the tale of the life of Marco Carrera, known as il Colibri? or “the hummingbird”: a life of fateful coincidences, loss, and stories of absolute love. Il Colibri? is the story of the ancestral force of life, of the arduous struggle we all make to withstand what at times appears intolerable – also by wielding the powerful weapons of illusion, happiness, and good cheer.

Il Signore Delle Formiche (The Lord of The Ants)

At the end of the sixties, a trial was held in Rome that caused a sensation. Playwright and poet Aldo Braibanti was sentenced to nine years in prison, found guilty of plagio. That is, of having submitted another person, physically and psychologically, to his own will. In this case, a student and friend who was barely of age. The youth’s family had him committed to a psychiatric hospital and subjected to a string of devastating electroshock treatments to “cure” him of that “diabolical” influence.  Drawing inspiration from true events, the film tells a story through a chorus of voices.

In Viaggio

In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on his most important issues: poverty, migration, the environment, solidarity and war. Intrigued by the fact that two of Francis’s trips – the first to the refugees landing in Lampedusa; the second in 2021 to the Middle East – so closely mirrored the itineraries of his films Fuocoammare and Notturno, Rosi follows the Pope’s Stations of the Cross. He sees what he sees, hears what he says and creates a dialogue between archival footage of Francis’ travels, images taken by Rosi himself, recent history and the state of the world today.

Interdit Aux Chiens et Aux Italiens (No Dogs or Italians Allowed)

Luigi and his brothers set out from their native village in the Piedmont, off to discover “La Merica”, the fabulous land where dollars grow on trees. Finally, instead of crossing the Atlantic, Luigi puts his backpack down in southern France, with hands that could no longer work.

Le Otto Montagne (The Eight Mountains)

The Eight Mountains is a story about friendship, fatherhood, and the choices we make in life. In the background, the mountains we climb every day, both physically and mentally. A universal story about the inescapable search for ourselves, while trying our best to staying true to the people around us.

L’immensità

1970s Rome: a time of great social and cultural change, full of grit and glamour. The young Borghetti family has just moved into one of the many freshly-built apartment blocks in the city. The move is bittersweet. Despite the beautiful, sweeping views of Rome from their top floor apartment, the family is not as close as they once were.

Clara and Felice are no longer in love, but are unable to leave each other. Clara finds refuge from her loneliness in the shelter of her special relationships with her three children. The oldest, Adriana (11), an unknown child in this new neighbourhood, deliberately presents as a boy to the local children, pushing the family’s bond towards a breaking point.

Margini (Margins)

Summer 2008. Three friends have the chance of a lifetime: opening for their favourite punk hardcore band. At the very last moment, the concert falls through but Edo, Iac and Miche don’t give up. To them punk is more than music, it’s a lifestyle. In a blink, they decide to bring the gig to Grosseto, the silent and conservative city where they live. All the difficulties and problems they face on their way risk to blow up their lives and their friendship.

The March on Rome

Through little-seen archive and his characteristically cinematic analysis, Mark Cousins narrates the ascent of fascism in Italy and its fall-out across 1930s Europe. Both essay film and historical document, Cousins contextualises history through the now, holding a mirror to a political landscape of a creeping far right and manipulated media.

Notte Fantasma (Ghost Night)

It is evening. Tarek is seventeen years old and is on his way to see his friends, who have asked him on the telephone to pass by the park first and buy a few grams of dope: nothing much, just enough for some fun. The boy buys the stuff in the dark park, but when he emerges finds that someone has seen him: a policeman in plain clothes, sitting in his own car. He tells the young man to get in the car and starts the engine. Where does he want to take him? What does he want from the teenager? The policeman makes him stay with him the whole night, driving around in apparently aimless fashion.

Siccità (Dry)

Rome, Italy. The drought has been parching the city for three years now, and the lack of water has changed everybody’s life. While strict rules add to people’s misery, odd characters roam the streets of the capital. Outcasts, achievers, victims, and wrongdoers are all part of the same tragic picture, and they are all after the same thing: redemption.

Spaccaossa (The Bone Breakers)

Inside a warehouse in Palermo, a group of people smashes a man’s arm to pieces with a wheelie bag packed with weights. This is the method used by an amateur criminal organization that fractures the limbs of its willing victims before staging fake accidents and raking in the insurance payouts. Vincenzo recruits the individuals from among the down-and-outs that haunt the city streets, where Luisa is a habitué, since she gets her crack there. Vincenzo’s problems suddenly get worse, though, after a series of mistakes shut him out of the gang, and Luisa is now his only chance: he convinces her to have her bones broken.

Related articles

Exclusive interviews! The Girl from Tomorrow – The cinematic portrait of a woman who reminds us to fight against the laws imposed by the dominant power of men

Movie star interview: Italian actor Paolo Pierobon on his career between cinema, theatre and books