Inchei (Italy)

By Federico Demattè

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Synopsis: Armando is a 15-year-old rom boy who lives in Milan’s suburbs with his mom and his brothers. His family is about to leave the shack they live in to move to Berlin where his mother’s partner has found a job. Armando spends the last days before his departure surrounded by his life-long friends, his first love and a nostalgic feeling for Milan, which by now he considered home. Running time: 00:17:15.

 

About the director: Federico Demattè was born in Trento in 1996. He moved to Berlin in 2016 and later to London following his musical projects. After three years he moved back to Italy where he published the novel “Jennifer salta giù” (Edizioni la Gru) and started attending the Naba school of Milan. Thus began to produce musical and commercial videoclips: he directed videos for Sony, Asian Fake and Bombadischi and commercials for Porsche and Golden Goose. Inchei is his debut short film.

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Entelechy (or on the sense of duty) (Italy)

By Carlo Alleva, Anna Utopia Giordano

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Synopsis: A spoken word song written and performed by artist, poet and performer Anna Utopia Giordano with music composed by multimedia independent artist Un Artista Minimalista. Entelechia is contained in Utopia's first album "Fogli d'ombra" released in 2021. The text, conceived by the author as a hybrid between poetry and script, contains suggestions from philosophy, literature and science, interweaving current global issues with classical images of ancient Greece. The videoclip is inspired by the tradition of 'son et lumière' night shows. In particular, the theme concerns the value of life, how every living being is part of the same unique unbreakable network and the debate on migrants, a very important issue in Italy. Running time: 00:05:07.

 

Selections/awards: Hong Kong Arthouse FF, Brussels Independent FF, and more.

 

About the directors: Anna Utopia Giordano is an Italian artist, performer and poet known for social awareness art projects like Venus and PopBottles published on major newspapers worldwide. Carlo Alleva is an Italian designer and art director. He currently works as a freelancer worldwide and has worked with several productions and important names as Netflix, Fox, Sky, Raicinema and many more.

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Heimat (Italy)

By Giovanni Montagnana

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Synopsis: A soldier surrounded by the Enemy and ultimately trapped in the City writes his last letter home. Running time: 00:20:00.

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Selections/awards: Winner of the 2021-21 edition of the Zavattini Award and the “Ansano Giannarelli” Special Mention for Peace and Experimentation, Archivio Aperto XV Edizione, Unarchive Found Footage Fest, River FF Padova, Bridge FF Verona, Analogica 12, and more.

 

About the director: Filmmaker and Visual Designer, born in Grosseto but has always lived in Verona. He graduated in Cinema at Dams in Bologna and divides his time between commercial video and personal film projects.

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The Performer (Italy)

By Gabriele Redaelli

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Synopsis: In a mechanical Milan, pierced by cables and tram rails, the accidental encounter with a homeless man forces Marcello to deal with the shadow of a lost love and with his ambitions as an actor. After another disappointing theatrical performance, between reality and metaphor, the young man will play the decisive game for his life. Running time: 00:09:16.

 

About the director: Gabriele Redaelli (2000, Monza) was raised in Milan. Inspired by the poetics of Woody Allen, Fellini, Sorrentino, Truffaut, Vinterberg, Aronofsky, Lynch and others, he decided to study filmmaking. He is currently a student in Film and Visual Arts and Technology at the Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti.

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Free Town (Italy)

By Pietro Malegori

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Synopsis: Hya, an immigrant who comes to Italy illegally, is trapped in a safe-house run by a network of human-smugglers. The only way out is to pay off the debt owned for her passage. In a tiny world apart, delineated by a few sparse rooms and simple routines, Hya unexpectedly discovers newfound security. Worn out by the precarious situation and the repeated violence of her husband Bikila, she chooses to get familiar with one of the smugglers left to keep an eye on them. In no time at all, this triangle will shatter into stunningly desperate violence where only one objective holds away: freedom. Running time: 00:18:00.

 

About the director: First working as editor and director in advertising, Malegori collaborated with various artists, such as Gabriele Salvatores, Willem Dafoe, Francesco Jodice, Marco Gentile, and for brands like Yamaha, Carrera, BMW, Nokia. He later wrote and directed several short films and began receiving attention at national film festivals. With “Son of Tibet”, based on the practice of self-immolation against the occupying regime in that Nation, he received recognition from the exiled community of Tibet for his social commitment and met the Dalai Lama for a private screening. In 2015, he created a series of five episodes for Sky Italia on the world of music production. In 2017, he co-produced the short film "Moby Dick", starring Kasia Smutniak, which won Best Short Film at the prestigious Nastri d’Argento Film Awards.

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Exterior Day (Italy)

By Giulia Magno

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Synopsis: In collaboration with Archivio Michelangelo Antonioni. Inspired by a famous exchange of letters between Antonioni and Rothko, “Esterno giorno” is an experimental love letter to Italian cinema. Following in the footsteps of the characters played by Monica Vitti, the film retraces the geography of Antonioni’s vision. From the metaphysical squares of Rome’s EUR district to the smokestacks of industrial Ravenna, from the red desert of Wadi Rum to the pink granite cliffs surrounding La Cupola—the futuristic house in Sardinia designed by architect Dante Bini for Antonioni and Vitti—, the physical spaces explored by the camera become psychological landscapes, states of mind, atmospheres. The filmmaker poetically weaves contemporary footage shot on location in Italy and Jordan, together with archival materials and excerpts from “Eclipse” (1962) and “Red Desert” (1964), creating an illusion of continuity between past and present. Running time: 00:08:08.

 

About the director: Giulia Magno is an experimental filmmaker and art curator based in Rome. She has curated exhibitions exploring the shifting boundaries between cinema and the visual arts through the works of artists such as Man Ray, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Abbas Kiarostami, and Chantal Akerman, of whom she curated the first major Italian retrospective at MAXXI Museum, Rome. Her experimental films have been exhibited in international institutions such as the Royal Galleries of Scotland (UK) and the National Museum of Cinema (Italy).

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Amarena (Italy)

By Alberto Palmiero

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Synopsis: 40 year-old fisherman Elio has to meet with a lawyer and his ex-wife Maddalena in order to sign the last divorce papers. A detail about her will force him to deal with his feelings. Running time: 00:14:00.

 

About the director: Alberto Palmiero (1997, Aversa, Italy), a graduate in Computer Science, makes the short film “Saddafà” in 2018. Since 2019 he is a student of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, one of the oldest film schools in Europe, where he shot “The Bullfish” and “Faraway”. He is currently working on his next short film “Amaremai”.

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