06/08/2013 - Beyond Sangue, the only Italian film in the international competition, the Swiss festival will host one film debut and two documentaries coproduced with Germany and France

If Sangue [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Pippo Delbono is the only Italian film to have been selected for the international competition in the 66^th Locarno Film Festival (read the news story), the Italian flag will still be well represented during the prestigious Swiss festival, which will kick off tomorrow, August 7, and will run through August 17. Indeed three other Italian films have been selected for the event: one feature film debut and two documentaries.

The Human Factor, documentary filmmaker Bruno Oliviero’s first feature length fictional film, will be presented on Piazza Grande on Friday, August 9. The film stars Silvio Orlando in the shoes of Inspector Monaco, a Neapolitan policeman in Milan, who is tired of his work and has isolated himself after the death of his wife three years prior. This isolation has created distance between him and his 16-year-old daughter, Linda (newcomer Alice Raffaelli). One evening, the teenage girl is found with a gun. That same night, his partner Levi (Giuseppe Battiston) and him are given a murder to solve: a rich and elderly construction worker was found dead by his wife (Sandra Ceccarelli). The film, produced by Lumière & Co., Invisibile Film and Rai Cinema and sold across the world by Intramovies, will be hitting Italian cinemas on August 29 with Bim. 

In competition in the Cineasti del Presente section (filmmakers from the present), will be The Special Need [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a German Italian coproduction (DETAiLFILM, Videomante), directed by Carlo Zoratti. The documentary follows Enea, an autistic boy who is ready for his first sexual encounter. Because Italy offers no legal solution to his needs, his two best friends Carlo and Alex take him on a trip across Europe in order to satisfy his desires. Much more is discovered during this trip than had initially been expected.

Among out of competition feature length films is documentary The Passion of Erto [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Penelope Bortoluzzi, a French Italian coproduction (Picofilms, Dugong). Erto is a village in the Friuli Alps located in the valley where the Vajont dam was built in the 1950s. At the time, the construction was the tallest in the world. In 1963, a portion of Mount Toc was precipitated into the dam’s artificial lake, provoking a wave that killed about 2,000 people. On the other side of the valley, the Ertani family never ceased – both before and after the catastrophe – to stage a yearly Passion of Christ. History marches on with its constructions and destructions, its victims and survivors, its real and imagined ordeals.   

Finally, a pre-launch to the festival has been organised with Andrea Segre (Lux 2012 award for Shun Li and the Poet) and his documentary Indebito [+see also:
trailer
film profile]: a journey through the financial crisis’ strongest symbol, Greece, undertaken with singer-songwriter Vinicio Capossela, out to discover rebetiko, a kind of Hellenic blues genre against power. The film will be screened on the afternoon of August 7. A Capossela concert will follow, complete with five Greek musicians.  

(Translated from Italian)