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FILMS Italy

Turin FF: Two local films look at Arab immigrants

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Fifty years ago, there were Sicilians, Calabrians and Apulians, today there are northern Africans, people from the world’s southern hemisphere, who in Turin hope to find a better life. The arrival point is still the same, the Porta Palazzo neighbourhood. Two Italian films screening in the Festa Mobile sidebar of the Turin Film Festival are set here.

They are proof of the growing interest of Italian cinema in the Arab world, and even share the same star, Tunisian actor Ahmed Hafiene, nominated for a David di Donatello award for The Right Distance [+see also:
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In Marco Turco’s years-in-the-making La Straniera (“The Foreign Woman”) – location scouting began a decade ago, it is produced by La Beffa and still has no distributor – Hafiene plays Naghib, a Moroccan architect who is perfectly integrated in Italian society. Says the director: “He is one of those immigrants who left his country not because of hunger but because he loves the West”.

The man has no ties to his origins, until he meets Amina (Kaltoum Boufangacha), a beautiful prostitute with a difficult past and uncertain future. Naturally, everything plots against their love, starting with the law. However, we’re in Pretty Woman territory here and Turco admits that he wanted “to use a fairy tale to tackle important themes”. The film is based on the novel by Younis Tawfik (whose finale is much less fairy tale-like).

La Cosa Giusta (“The Right Thing”), the debut film of Marco Campogiani, features a couple of contrasting cops: one is a no-nonsense, disillusioned veteran (Ennio Fantastichini), the other young, idealistic and speaks fluent Arabic (Paolo Briguglia). Ideal for tailing Khalid (Hafiene), who was acquitted but is still suspected of having ties with Al-Qaida. The suspect, however, catches on to them immediately but when he begins receiving threats the cops become his bodyguards.

However, the film – produced by Toma Cinematografica and RAi Cinema, and out locally from November 27 through Cinecittà Luce – is not the crime drama it may seem. The director, who based the story on real events, admits he instead wanted to make a commedia all’Italiana.

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(Translated from Italian)

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