14/03/2014 - The Roman event for independent cinema will take place March 16-23. Return To Zero with Minnie Driver will open, while documentary Temporary Road on Franco Battiato will close

Actress Minnie Driver, the star of indie film Return To Zero by Sean Hanish, the story on the strains of motherhood, will open the 13^th edition of the Rome Independent Film Festival which will kick off on March 16 at the Nuovo Cinema Aquila for a week rich in films and independent documentaries with numerous European and global premieres. The event will include six films competing in the international section, six in the feature Italian one and twenty documentaries among which eight foreign ones.

Italian films in competition are: The Stalker [+see also:
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film profile] by trio Riccardo Romboli, Giulio Valli, Nico di Lalla, and Sogni di gloria [+see also:
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film profile] by Collettivo John Snellinberg, environmental films Ci vorrebbe un miracolo [+see also:
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film profile] by Davide Minnella and La terra e il vento [+see also:
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film profile] by Sebastian Maulucci, and noir action movie The Sweepers [+see also:
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The foreign feature film selection will put women in the foreground: a rebellious and anxious artist in German-Swiss Tempo Girl [+see also:
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interview: Bodo Kox
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interview: Fernando Franco
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Social engagement, environment, but also mafia and the fight against multinationals are just some of the themes to pick up on in the Italian documentary selection.  Of note is Another World by Thomas Torelli, which offers an unedited reflection between man and the universe. Environmental themes can be found in Wangki by Joana de Freitas Ginori and Matteo Vieille Rivara, focused on the daily battles of the Miskito people to preserve the balance between man and nature, and Iriria - Niña tierra by Carmelo Camilli.

Just 25 years after his death, director Ambrogio Crespi opens the lid on the memory of the Tortora affair with his Enzo Tortora. Happy Goodyear by Elena Ganelli and Laura Pesino offers a reflection on multinational companies with a focus on the pneumatic factory. A different kind of documentary for Eleonora Marino’s La bella Virginia al bagno, a journey through 19^th century theme parks. Italian mysteries also abound, including Romagna Nostra, le mafie sbarcano in Riviera by Francesco Ceccoli. Pierpaolo Pasolini is the focus in Un intellettuale in borgata by Enzo de Camillis.

Among foreign documentaries: the original story of urban reconstruction in Ruin by Markus Lenz (Germany) and the visit to one of the most closed off environments in the world: a female prison in Afghanistan in No Burqas Behind Bars, directed by Nima Sarvestani (Sweden). A documentary will close the festival: Temporary Road. (una) Vita di Franco Battiato, directed by Giuseppe Pollicelli and Mario Tani.

Some important screenings will be hosted at the Rome Film Market, the new platform for independent films from around the world, promoted by RIFF, which has a large library of independent shorts, features and documentaries. Thanks to the platform, a number of out of competition films will be screened, including Viramundo: a Journey with Gilberto Gil [+see also:
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film profile] by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud; Io Donna by Pino Quartullo with Margherita Buy, Massimo Wertmuller, Sergio Rubini; Nuit Americhèn by Federico Greco, with Gianmarco Tognazzi, Regina Orioli; reCuiem by Valentina Carnelutti, with Teresa Saponangelo, Francesco Tricarico.

The RIFF Awards will be given out at the end of the festival, worth €50,000.

(Translated from Italian)