Press Release
Assessorato alle Politiche Culturali e della Comunicazione
XIII Tertio Millennio Film Festival Forms of Resistance International Convention 24th– 25th November Cinema Festival 1st– 6thDecember Sala Trevi Cinema Rome, Vicolo del Puttarello, 22.
* * *
FILM PREVIEWS SPECIAL EVENT: ‘IO, LORO E LARA’ BY CARLO VERDON THE RESTORED VERSION OF ‘UOMINI CONTRO’ (MANY WARS AGO) OF FRANCESCO ROSI ‘POPIELUSZKO’ BY RAFAL WIECZYNSKI FOCUS IRAN EASTERN EUROPE: FORMS OF CHANGE RDC AWARDS
BERNARD ÈMOND IN RETROSPECT
Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo Via Giuseppe Palombini, 6 · 00165 Roma · Telefono +39 06 6637455 · Fax +39 06 6637321 Email [email protected] · www.entespettacolo.org · Partita IVA 09273491002 e Codice Fiscale 97434740581
Press Release
Rome, 18th November 2009 - The arrival of the XIII edition of the Tertio Millennio Film Festival, organized by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo under the direction of Dario E. Viganò, suggests yet again the consideration of the cinema as a moment of reflection on the problems and events of the contemporary world. This year, together with the film previews and other special events, two parts of the festival will be concentrating on the production of cinema documentaries which are both highly relevant and sensitive to the central themes of the documentary makers’ national origins. There will be Focus Iran and “Eastern Europe. Forms of Change”, the latter focusing on documentary cinema from former member states of the Soviet regime. As every year, all of the works featured in the programme schedule will be centred on a specific, chosen theme which, for 2009, is ‘Forms of Resistance’, a selection which joins the aesthetic with the political.
Dario E. Viganò, President of the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo and of the Tertio Millennio Film Festival, claims that: “A few days ago was the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. This is an anniversary which is chosen as a moment of hope and of the rebirth of democracy. The Tertio Millennio Film Festival is, by tradition, an occasion for reflection and an occasion for questioning the condition of mankind within modernity, using the cinema as an instrument for thought and for awareness, but also as a place for relationships and meetings. The title of this year’s festival is “Forms of Resistance”: as such we have decided to express the theme of the 13th edition, in other words the centrality of aesthetic choice as also an act of intervention in the external world, as an invitation to action on the behalf of the spectators. The two programmes are dedicated to two diverse and distinct 2 historical and cultural horizons – the former member states of the Soviet Union and Iran – in which, if we follow common opinion, the cinema has become a means for a discrete but substantial form of dissent, the area for a contrary but, nevertheless, non violent form of opposition which is both profound and radical in its opposition to the status quo both within thought and of the dominant powers”
These films will be shown at the Trevi Cinema (vicolo del Puttarello), in the room of the Cineteca Nazionale del Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
The festival will be inaugurated on Tuesday 1st December with the preview screening of Donne senza uomini (Women without Men) by the Iranian director Shirin Neshat, this was awarded the Leone d’Argento Award for best director at the last edition of the International Venice Film Festival and is due to be distributed by BIM next March 5th. Based on the novel by Shahrnush Parsipur, the film is set in Tehran in 1953, a particularly dramatic year in Iranian history in which the democratically elected government was clamorously overthrown by the shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a political leader with the support of the CIA, and narrates the story of four very different women who meet in a beautiful garden of orchids where they find independence, comfort and friendship.
Among the other film preview screenings is Lourdes by Jessica Hausner which participated in the Venice Film Festival where it obtained much recognition, including the international film critics’ FIPRESCI Award, the Navicella Award and the Signis Award. A wonderful film on the theme of miracles which narrates the story of Press Release
Christine, a woman consigned to living in a wheel chair who, in order to escape from her constant isolation, travels to Lourdes. One morning she awakes apparently cured by a miracle. The film is distributed by Cinecittà Luce.
Tra le nuvole (Up in the Air) by Jason Reitman with Clooney/Ryan as a company head-hunter and professional traveller accustomed to living in airports, hotels, and rental cars carrying with him everything he needs in a trolley suitcase. However, Ryan’s encounter with Alex brings disorder to Ryan’s previously well organized wanderings. Entered in the International Rome Film Festival 2009, the film will be in cinemas from January and is to be distributed by Universal Pictures.
Heiran by Shalizeh Arefpour (Focus Iran section) is the first fictional film by the Iranian documentary maker and was selected at the last Toronto Film Festival.
Among the special events of this edition of the Tertio Millennio Film Festival, the first is dedicated to the memory of Mario Verdone, friend, journalist and collaborator on ‘Rivista del Cinematografo’ with the first screening, reserved only for guests of the Tertio Millennio Film Festival, of Carlo Verdone’s Io, loro e Lara. The director from Rome, who will be present at the film preview, is also the central character in this new comedy in which he plays the role of a missionary priest who returns from Africa to the Italian capital in order to find some peace, however, he ends up with the problems of an unstable and indifferent family as well as those of Lara (Laura Chiatti), a difficult individual with a turbulent lifestyle. The film, produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, will be in cinemas from 5th January 2010. 3
The second special event is a homage to one of the great directors of Italian cinema – Francesco Rosi – which will include the showing of Uomini contro (Many Wars Ago, 1970) which has been carefully restored by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and by the Cineteca Nazionale. The film, which will be screened in the presence of the director, is set among the scenes of the First World War on the uplands of Asiago between 1916 and 1917 and follows the story of a young lieutenant (Gian Maria Volonté) who, confronted with the folly of a general and the massacre of his soldiers, is transformed from convinced interventionist to someone who understands the absurdity of war.
The third special event anticipates the festival on Monday 30th November with the screening of Popieluszko by Rafal Wieczynski at 21:00. The evening is organized by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Culture. The film, which was originally presented at the last edition of the International Rome Film Festival, has achieved enormous success and recounts the life of the priest Jerzy Popieluszko who, at the beginning of the 1980s, had the courage to denounce the lies of the Polish government and the difficult conditions in which the population found themselves, from the pulpit. The words of the priest – later captured, tortured and killed by the Soviet secret services – did not fall on deaf ears however and literally became a call for the struggle for liberty.
FOCUS IRAN – OTHER STORIES. Following on from a series of seasons in which Iranian cinema seemed to have lost its force, Iranian cinema has returned stronger Press Release
than ever. This is amply demonstrated by the recent series of awards at the Venice Film Festival for Women without Men (official competition) and Tehroun (Settimana della Critica) as well as the films on programme for this edition of the Tertio Millennio Film Festival. This involve films apparently based around individual stories but which, nevertheless, reflect the fundamental problems of Iranian society. All of the films are national first releases.
Heiran (fiction) by Shalizeh Arefpour is the story of a 17-year-old Iranian called Mahi who falls in love with an Afghan student who is a refugee in Iran after the Taliban seizure of power. The film brings to light the difficulties of integration for Afghanis within Iranian society.
My Little Country (documentary) by Abbas Mohammadi is an account of how, after the retreat of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the successive seizure of power by the Taliban, countless Afghanis were forced to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, among which is Iran. The director enters into the classes of the so-called autonomous schools, opened in 1981 by Afghanis without either permission or funding from the Iranian government, in order to instil in the refugee students a sense of belonging towards their country of origin. Even if the autonomous school diplomas are not recognized by Iranian authorities as a means of entering higher education, they remain recognized in Afghanistan and, therefore, obtaining a diploma entails the hope of one day returning.
In Torgheh (documentary) by Mohammed Hassan Damanzan, four Iranian women from the central province of Khorasan, although constricted to face grave 4 social problems, find comfort in their shared passion for music.
We’ll Get Used to It (documentary) by Mohsen Ostad Ali Makhmalbaf, examines the solitude and lack of assistance which five courageous youngsters face on escaping from difficult family lives.
In Countdown (documentary) by Khatereh Hanachi, the director represents the anxiety and expectations of all young Iranians through the strains which the 18- year-old Parisa experiences in order to pass the entrance examinations of university.
The section EASTERN EUROPE: FORMS OF CHANGE proposes, on the other hand, a selection from the best directors of documentary cinema from the former Soviet Union and its satellite states.
From Audrius Stonys, Lithuanian director and one of the most highly regarded documentary makers in Europe, as well as member of the European Documentary Network, is the screening of Earth of the Blind, an imagery poem which was awarded the EFA for best documentary; Harbour, a short film on the treatments practised in a thermal health spa and consists of a lyrical reflection on time and death; The Bell is an investigation into an ancient legend concerning a mysterious sunken bell and ends up contemplating the very meaning of such a legend (shown on Wednesday 2nd December in the presence of the director).
Press Release
From the Kazak director Sergei Dvortsevoy (winner in 2008 of ‘Un Certain Regard’ at Cannes for Tulpan his first film of fiction) the Rome Festival proposes two documentaries: In the Dark follows the life of an isolated, blind elderly man who passes his time making bags from old rope in the company of his disrespectful cat; Bread Day, however, is set in a remote village in darkest Russia, a former mineral colony where the elderly inhabitants, the only people remaining, every week carry out a ritualistic journey in conquest of their own daily bread (screening Sunday 6th December, in the presence of the director).
From Georgia is Nino Kirtadze, journalist, actor well-known to the French public, and documentary maker who, with The Pipeline Next Door, recounts the opposition of a Georgian village to the construction and installation of an enormous oil pipeline by a large multinational oil company; on the programme schedule is also Durakovo: The Village of Fools a lucid and surreal journal of the daily life of a village in which groups of fanatical, orthodox nationalists work for the rebirth of the Soviet empire (screening Thursday 3rd December, with the presence of the director).
From the former Byelorussian electronic engineer Sergei Loznitsa, who was to soon become a singular point of reference for international documentary cinema, the festival will be showing two feature films: Landscape gathers together in one long, unique sequence the suggestions and humour of contemporary Russian society through the recording of everyday discourse at the bus stops leading into the city; Revue, on the other hand, paints a portrait of the USSR through a documentary study of the apparatuses assembling the materials for the state festivals and ceremonies (screening Tuesday 1st December with the presence of the 5 director).
Thomas Heise, is a German director who has dedicated his entire career to the documentation and criticism of the former German Democratic Republic, or DDR, basing his implicit and dry style on interviews and the registration of everyday life within institutions. Mein Bruder – recounts the meeting between the director and his brother whilst the latter is staying with an old friend called Micha and is later revealed, following the opening of the state archives of the Stasi, to have been an informer for the regime. The films represents the finest example of this type of cinema, in which the narrative is read in the first person from a specific basis in everyday life. Such a homage to Thomas Heise ends with the latest film Material, one of the most discussed films at the Berlin Festival and which gathers together the material registered by Heise over a number of years but never used in order to propose multiple insights into the fateful events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Screening Saturday 5th December).
Always at the same Festival, and just like every year, there will also be the RdC Awards ceremony which will take place during a gala evening on Friday 4th December at 20:30. In previous festivals the RdC Awards have been consigned to important exponents from the world of cinema, television and film criticism, among which: Antonio Capuano, Francesco Munzi, the Frazzi brothers, Gianluca Maria Tavarelli, Mario Sesti, Giuseppe Fiorello and Silvio Soldini.
Press Release
RdC Awards The awards and the categories
1. Navicella Award – Italian cinema 2. Navicella Award – Fiction 3. “Diego Fabbri” Award – Best written piece in film criticism 4. “Soundtrack” Award
5. Revelation of the Year Award
Bernard Émond in Retrospect
This year, the end of the festival will be distinguished by another special event. On the 14th, 15th and 16th December at the Cinema Delle Province in Rome (viale delle Province, 41) there will be a restrospective study dedicated to the work of the Canadian director Bernard Émond. This retrospective study has been organized by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo in collaboration with the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana and the National Office for Social Communications of the CEI. On this occasion will be shown Édmond’s trilogy centred on three theological virtues – faith, hope and charity – starting with La neuvaine (English title The Novena) winner of the Giuria Ecumenica Award at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, followed by Contre toute espèrance (English title Summit Circle) and La donation (The Legacy) which won the Giuria Giovani Award for again at the Swiss film festival. 6 In La neuvaine a young, female doctor is overcome by guilt following the accidental death of two of her patients and, running away from her life, she meets a young man in the provinces and his grandmother who both assist her in coming to terms with both her life and her career.
Contro toute espèrance is an account of the desperation of Rejéanne. For years Rejéanne has been in close contact with her husband Gilles following a heart attack which has rendered him immobile, a situation which ultimately leads to her making a dramatic decision.
In La donation, Jeanne is to discover that even behind the closed-mindedness and diffidence of a provincial village, there remains human warmth.
International Convention
“History after the Cinema: Perception, Meaning and Action in the Viewed World” 24th – 25th November (Sala Trevi Cinema)
The Tertio Millennio Film Festival will open with the international convention titled “History after the Cinema: Perception, Meaning and Action in the Viewed Press Release
World”. Reflecting on the revolution which the cinema, the so-called seventh art, has brought about not only in the systems of classical art but also in the history of scientific disciplines, and more generally in our perception of the world, how we consider it and interact with it will be Prof.Giorgio De Vincenti (Università Roma Tre), Prof. Marco Maria Gazzano (Università Rome Tre), Prof. Mario Perniola (Università Roma Tor Vergata), Dr. Piero Vereni (Università Roma Tor Vergata), Dr. Giacomo Ravesi (Università Roma Tre), Dr. Elena Canadelli (Università Milano Bicocca) and the film director Daniele Vicari. The work of the convention, which will take place in the Sala Trevi Cinema on Tuesday 24th beginning at 15:30 and Wednesday 25th beginning at 09:30. The convention will be opened by S.E. Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and S.E. Mons. Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The convention will be coordinated by Serafino Murri (film director, critic, and university lecturer at IULM Milano).
Info Ufficio Stampa (Press Office)
Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo Giuseppe Zaccaria tel. +39 06 6637 455 - Cell. +39 339 4643813 e-mail: [email protected]
PRC Srl - Roma Daniele Autieri Tel. +39 339 2071 792 e-mail [email protected] 7
The Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo has been in operation since 1946 within Italian cinema culture. Over time it has become one of the leaders in cinema content and manages cinema information for Sole24ore.it, Libero.it, Yahoo, Acotel-Noverca, Previewnetworks, MTV, Comingsoon Television and others.
The Fondazione carries out activity in terms of both traditional and electronic publishing at the web portal www.cinematografo.it., organizes cultural events, international conventions, seminars and film festivals (www.tertiomillenniofest.org), film previews, often in collaboration with important Italian and foreign partners, among which the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Cinecittà Holding, Istituto Luce, “Cahiers du Cinéma”, Fondazione Cineteca di Milano, Museo del Cinema di Torino.
It is also the publisher of Rivista del Cinematografo the oldest Italian periodical of film criticism.
The Tertio Millennio Film Festival is the first festival produced with the support of the Vatican, arriving at the twelfth edition and organized by Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo and ‘Rivista del Cinematografo’ directly presided over by Dario Edoardo Viganò. The film festival is under the joint responsibility of Pontifical Council for Culture and Social Communication, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale, with the contribution of the General Director for the Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
The Tertio Millennio Film Festival also has the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and the sponsorship of the Department for Culture of the Rome Council.
www.tertiomillenniofilmfest.org
The festival has been made possible with the support of the Rome Council - Department of Cultural Policy and Communication