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PRODUCTION Italy / Sweden

Adele Tulli explores gender roles in Normal

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- The new doc, which examines the concept of normality in relation to masculinity and femininity through a mosaic of scenes portraying daily life, will be screened in the Berlinale Panorama

Adele Tulli explores gender roles in Normal
Normal by Adele Tulli

An unexpected journey through gender norms, stereotypes and conventions in modern-day Italy, tracing along the boundaries that we call “male” and “female”. This is how Normal [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, the new documentary film by 37-year-old director Adele Tulli (365 Without 377Rebel Menopause), is described. The movie will be world-premiered in the Panorama section of the 69th Berlinale.

Produced by young start-up FilmAffair, in co-production with AAMOD – the Labour and Democratic Movement Audiovisual Archive, and in association with Istituto Luce Cinecittà and Intramovies, the movie explores the rituals, desires and behaviours linked to gender and sexuality, through a mosaic of scenes of daily life that have a strong visual impact, spanning the period from childhood to adulthood. It portrays a kaleidoscope of situations that are alternately curious, tender, grotesque and mysterious, all bound by the depiction of what we usually call “normality”, but shown from truly surprising angles and points of view, thus offering a lucid and ironic reflection on the impact that the social construction of gender has on our lives. 

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“In my previous films, I worked on topics related to gender and sexuality, and I always chose protagonists who would reflect the point of view of those who position themselves on the fringes of the prevailing social conventions,” states the director, who studied Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths, University of London and is currently engrossed in a post-doctorate degree at the University of Sussex. “In this work, I wanted to experiment with a change of perspective, focusing precisely on the very thing that is considered conventional, normative and normal. The idea is to create a number of juxtapositions and contradictions that will successfully elicit a sense of alienation and surprise in the face of the spectacle of the ‘perfectly normal’ everyday reality.”

Made in conjunction with Rai Cinema and Sweden’s Ginestra FilmNormal – which won the Eurimages Lab Project Award at Karlovy Vary last July (read the interview) – will be released in Italian theatres by Istituto Luce Cinecittà, while the international distribution has been entrusted to Slingshot Films.

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(Translated from Italian)

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