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LECCE 2016

Krzysztof Zanussi, Christian De Sica and Elio Germano take centre stage at Lecce

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- The 17th edition of the European Film Festival, unspooling from 18-23 April, will also pay tribute to Andrzej Zulawski, and the ten films in competition are joined by a new European comedy section

Krzysztof Zanussi, Christian De Sica and Elio Germano take centre stage at Lecce
Asino Vola by Paolo Tripodi and Marcello Fonte

Ten films in competition hailing from all around Europe, a new section dedicated to European comedy, directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Zulawski (who passed away recently) taking centre stage as “Champions of European Cinema”, and actors Christian De Sica and Elio Germano being hailed as “Champions of Italian Cinema”. All of this is on offer at the 17th Lecce European Film Festival (18-23 April 2016), which will also host the seventh edition of the Mario Verdone Award and, for the third year in a row, an analysis of Italian comedy, helmed by Marco Giusti.

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Asino Vola by Paolo Tripodi and Marcello Fonte will have the honour of being the opening film of the festival, which is managed, as ever, by Luigi La Monica and Cristina Soldano. The family film produced by Tempesta Film, with Rai Cinema and contributions from the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, stars such names as Luigi Lo Cascio, and features the voices of Lino Banfi and Maria Grazia Cucinotta. The ten European movies in the competition are: Luxembourg’s Baby(a)lone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Donato Rotunno
film profile
]
by Donato Rotunno, the story of two runaway 13-year-olds; Albania’s Chromium [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bujar Alimani
film profile
]
by Bujar Alimani (who won the Cineuropa Prize at Lecce in 2011 with his feature debut, Amnesty [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bujar Alimani
film profile
]
); the Swiss title Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stina Werenfels
film profile
]
by Stina Werenfels; and the British title Hector [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jake Gavin
film profile
]
by Jake Gavin, starring Scottish actor Peter Mullan as a homeless person. Then we have Turkey’s Ivy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tolga Karaçelik
film profile
]
by Tolga Karaçelik, Hungary’s Lily Lane [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Bence Fliegauf, Austria’s One of Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephan Richter
film profile
]
by Stephan Richter, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Our Everyday Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ines Tanović
film profile
]
by Ines Tanović, Slovakia’s The Cleaner [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Žiaran
interview: Peter Bebjak
film profile
]
by Peter Bebjak and Iceland’s Virgin Mountain [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Dagur Kári.

One novelty this year is the European Comedy section, which gathers together five titles: France’s 21 Nights with Pattie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Germany’s Heil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dietrich Brüggemann
film profile
]
by Dietrich Brüggemann, Spain’s Incidencias [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by José Corbacho and Juan Cruz, Denmark’s Klown Forever [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Mikkel Nørgaard and Schneider vs. Bax [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alex van Warmerdam
film profile
]
by Alex van Warmerdam (the Netherlands/Belgium). As for the aforementioned champions at this edition, Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi’s most recent film, the psychological drama Foreign Body [+see also:
trailer
interview: Krzysztof Zanussi
film profile
]
, will be presented, in addition to a ten-title retrospective. Ten movies have also been selected to commemorate another Polish filmmaker, Andrzej Zulawski, who passed away two months ago. Meanwhile, Christian De Sica will present his latest film as the lead actor, Fräulein - Una commedia d'inverno, and a selection of comedies he stars in; Elio Germano, who also has a retrospective dedicated to him, will take part in a meeting with the audience.

This year’s analysis of Italian comedy will zoom in on the role of female figures in national comedy: among the myriad guests taking part in the rendezvous are Ambra Angiolini, Anna Foglietta, Paola Minaccioni, Maria Sole Tognazzi and Carlo Verdone. The three finalists for the Mario Verdone Award, which is bestowed upon a young auteur who has stood out particularly with his or her feature debut during the most recent film season, are Alberto Caviglia for Pecore in erba [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alberto Caviglia
film profile
]
, Duccio Chiarini for Short Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Duccio Chiarini
film profile
]
and Carlo Lavagna for Arianna [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlo Lavagna
film profile
]

Lastly of note are the Cinema & Realtà section, which centres on important social and cultural topics, the screening of the three films that were finalists for the 2015 LUX Prize (the winner Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile
]
, Mediterranea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Carpignano
film profile
]
and The Lesson [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Val…
interview: Margita Gosheva
film profile
]
), the showcase curated by the Experimental Film Centre with the graduation films by the students of the National Film School and a photo exhibition dedicated to the great actress Monica Vitti

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(Translated from Italian)

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