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BERLINALE 2017 Market / Italy

The promises of Italian cinema on display at the EFM

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- Marco Danieli, Pif, Fabio Mollo, Michele Vannucci, Davide Barletti and Lorenzo Conte, and Claudio Giovannesi are just some of the young auteurs being touted by Italian sales agents at the EFM

The promises of Italian cinema on display at the EFM
Worldly Girl by Marco Danieli

Rai Com stands proudly at the forefront of the contingent of Italian companies taking national cinema’s up-and-coming stars to this year’s European Film Market at the Berlinale. The international sales arm of the public TV broadcaster managed by Mattia Oddone has several interesting titles by young auteurs on its slate, such as Pierfrancesco Diliberto (aka Pif), Fabio Mollo, Davide Barletti and Lorenzo Conte, and Claudio Giovannesi. Previously presented as a preview screening at the 2016 Rome Film Fest, At War with Love [+see also:
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making of
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]
by Pif (produced by Wildside with Rai Cinema, as was the case for Pif’s feature debut, The Mafia Only Kills in Summer [+see also:
film review
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interview: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
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]
) is set in Sicily during the landing of the Allied Forces in 1943. Another title that screened at the Rome Film Fest is The War of Bumpkins [+see also:
film review
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interview: Davide Barletti, Lorenzo Co…
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]
by Davide Barletti and Lorenzo Conte, documentarians who cut their teeth in the Fluid Video Crew collective. Produced by Minimum Fax Media, La Luna and Rai Cinema, the story revolving around teenagers in sun-drenched Puglia comes fresh from the 2017 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it was selected in the Bright Future section.

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Another very promising title is Il padre d'Italia, the sophomore work by Fabio Mollo, who won over a plethora of festivals and markets, including the Berlinale itself (in the Generation section) and the Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery), with South Is Nothing [+see also:
film review
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interview: Miriam Karlkvist
film profile
]
. Il padre d'Italia, produced by Bianca Film, is toplined by rising star Luca Marinelli (They Call Me Jeeg [+see also:
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making of
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
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]
) and Isabella Ragonese (Sun, Heart, Love [+see also:
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]
). Toni Servillo (The Great Beauty [+see also:
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interview: Paolo Sorrentino
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]
) is flanked by Luca Marinelli in Lasciati andare by Francesco Amato (Cosimo and Nicole [+see also:
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), one of the directors from the Cattleya stable, which produced the film with Rai Cinema. It tells the story of a Jewish psychoanalyst from the Freudian school, who, thanks to his air of solemnity and aloofness, has a reputation for instilling instant awe in his patients. Fiore [+see also:
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Q&A: Claudio Giovannesi
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by Claudio Giovannesi, set in a juvenile detention centre, comes from the 2016 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and has garnered acclaim at almost 30 festivals around the globe. Rai Com’s catalogue is rounded off by The Ploy [+see also:
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by David Grieco, about the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the latest film by prominent director Giuseppe Piccioni, Questi giorni [+see also:
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, which was in competition at the 2016 Venice Film Festival. 

Just as interesting is the catalogue being touted by True Colours, a firm managed by Catia Rossi, and created by Lucky Red and Indigo Film. There we find Piuma [+see also:
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by Roan Johnson (produced by Palomar and Sky Italia) and I Was a Dreamer [+see also:
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interview: Alessandro Borghi
interview: Michele Vannucci
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]
by Michele Vannucci, produced by Kino, the former selected in official competition at the most recent Venice Film Festival, the latter in Horizons. One title screened Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival was the second feature by Kim Rossi Stuart, Tommaso [+see also:
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, also produced by Palomar, while the Rome Film Fest’s Official Selection played host to the excellent documentary by Francesco Patierno Naples '44 [+see also:
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interview: Francesco Patierno
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]
, embellished with the dulcet tones of narrator Benedict Cumberbatch, the British actor. Qualcosa di nuovo, directed by Cristina Comencini, based on a comedy stage play by the director herself, pits two girlfriends against each other and stars Paola Cortellesi (Gli ultimi saranno ultimi [+see also:
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) and Micaela Ramazzotti (Like Crazy [+see also:
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Q&A: Paolo Virzì
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]
). The Italian line-up is topped off by two hilarious comedies, L'ora legale by Salvatore Ficarra and Valentino Picone, and Non c'è più religione by Luca Miniero. True Colours’ EFM catalogue also includes Two Irenes by Brazilian filmmaker Fabio Meira, selected in Generation Kplus at this edition of the Berlinale.

Intramovies is taking 2Night [+see also:
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by Ivan Silvestrini (Monolith), produced by Controra, to the Berlin-based market. Its cast comprises just a couple of actors, Matilde Gioli and Matteo Martari, and the movie was shown in Alice nella Città – Panorama at the 2016 Rome Film Fest. The winner of the Audience Award at the 2016 Noir In Festival, Il permesso by Claudio Amendola is the story of four inmates during their 48-hour furlough. Awarded in the Venice Days and at other festivals, Worldly Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Marco Danieli
film profile
]
is the feature debut by another very promising young auteur, Marco Danieli

Adriana Chiesa Enterprises is pinning its hopes on Water and Sugar: Carlo di Palma, the Colours of Life [+see also:
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by Fariborz Kamkari, a documentary film on the artistic life of the great Italian DoP through over 100 films he has worked on: from the neorealism of Visconti, De Sica and Rossellini to Bernardo Bertolucci, and from Italian-style comedies to his long-running collaboration with Woody Allen.

At Berlin, Minerva Pictures will be pushing the action title Falchi [+see also:
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, the new film by Toni D'Angelo (Una notte [+see also:
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), Veleno by Diego Olivares (both produced by Bronx Film), and Piccoli Crimini Coniugali [+see also:
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by Alex Infascelli, produced by Fabula Pictures, and starring Sergio Castellitto and Margherita Buy

Fandango Sales is taking care of the sales for I Can Quit Whenever I Want 2: Masterclass [+see also:
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by Sydney Sibilia, the second instalment (which has just hit Italian screens) in a brilliant trilogy that looks set to be a smash hit. Lastly, Fandango’s slate includes It's Not the Time of My Life [+see also:
film review
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interview: Szabolcs Hajdu
film profile
]
by Hungary’s Szabolcs Hajdu, the winner of the most recent Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

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(Translated from Italian)

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