The 2023 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival presented by Palace returns to Canberra’s Palace Electric from 20 September, transporting audiences to Italy with a stunning selection of the best in contemporary Italian cinema. Award winning drama, comedies and documentaries will feature, timed perfectly to celebrate the start of spring.
The festival will open with the Australian premiere of The Last Night of Amore (L’ultima notte di Amore), a stylish Milan-set thriller starring the magnificent Pierfrancesco Favino. A major Italian box office hit, the film follows a police lieutenant who is drawn into a web of crime and corruption on the eve of his retirement.
Direct from the Cannes Film Festival come the three Italian films that screened In Competition this year. The 2023 Festival Centrepiece is Marco Bellocchio’s Kidnapped (Rapito). Based on true events, the gripping historical drama is the story of a young Jewish boy whose abduction by the Vatican fuelled outrage in 19th-century Italy and triggered a global scandal.
Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, a captivating fable of lost love set in 1980s Tuscany, follows a young British archaeologist (played by Josh O’Connor) who becomes entangled in an international network dealing in stolen Italian artefacts and in Nanni Moretti’s multi layered new comedy A Brighter Tomorrow (Il sol dell’avvenire), about filmmaking in the age of streaming giants, a film director (Moretti) struggles with his relationship, family and the production of his latest film.
This year’s festival features three special presentations. The Eight Mountains (Le otto montagne), starring Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi, was awarded theCannes Jury Prize in 2022 and won four David di Donatello Awards. The epic journey of friendship and self-discovery is set in the breathtaking Italian Alps. Burning Hearts (Ti mangio il cuore), is a searing crime story of love and revenge set in Puglia and shot in stunning black and white, which stars Italian singer Elodie in her first acting role.
Caravaggio’s Shadow (L’ombra di Caravaggio) is a lush, historical drama starring the impeccable Riccardo Scamarcio, which explores the struggles of the notorious Renaissance painter as he is investigated by the Vatican. The film won a number of David di Donatello and Nastri D’Argento Awards.
Documentary highlights include The Circle (Il cerchio). The winner of Best Documentary at the 2023 David di Donatello Awards, Sophie Chiarello’s film follows the pupils of an Italian primary school for five years, capturing their unique perspective on the world. Magic Naples (Napoli magica) follows actor/director Marco D’Amore as he sets out on a journey of discovery into the heart of Naples, uncovering myths, legends, the labyrinths of the city and the countless stories of one of the oldest and most fascinating cities in the world. Directed by former Versace model Salvatore Zannino,The Genius of Gianni Versace Alive takes viewers on a deep dive into the creative genius of influential Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace in a celebration of his extraordinary life and career.
A companion piece to the festival retrospective focus on Massimo Troisi (detailed below) is Mario Martone’s Somebody Down There Likes Me (Laggiù qualcuno mi ama). In this personal journey into the cinema of Troisi, the acclaimed director combines film scenes, interviews with Italian cinema stars and critics plus previously unpublished materials to explore the life and career of the cinema great.
Roberto Andò’s imaginative and irreverent biopic Strangeness (La stranezza) explores the inspiration behind one of modern Italian theatre’s revolutionary works. An Italian box office hit, it stars festival favourite Toni Servillo as Literature Nobel Prize winning playwright Luigi Pirandello on a trip to Sicily in the 1920s, where he is faced with a serious case of writer’s block.
Direct from the 2023 Venice Film Festival is The Order of Time (L’ordine del tempo), an all-star ensemble drama about the reality of time and the meaning of life, featuring Alessandro Gassmann, Claudia Gerini, Edoardo Leo and Angela Molina. Loosely inspired by the bestselling physics novel by Carlo Rovelli, a group of friends get together in a seaside villa to celebrate a birthday, only to discover it may be their last reunion.
Closing the 2023 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival is the magnificent The Postman (Il Postino), which remains, after nearly four decades, critically acclaimed and loved by audiences around the world. Co-starring the inimitable Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Troisi’s final film before his untimely passing is an engaging blend of easy humour and sunny romance that explores love, poetry and friendship in 1950s Italy.
The 2023 festival retrospective, presented by the Italian Institute of Culture Sydney, celebrates Massimo Troisi’s 30-year career in Italian cinema which began with a successful stint in cabaret, theatre and television. Three of his most significant films will be screened; his debut in I’m Starting From Three (Ricomincio da tre), a humorous and heartfelt exploration of self-discovery in which he plays a young Neapolitan who moves to Florence; a comedic adventure Nothing Left to Do But Cry(Non ci resta che piangere), starring Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi as two best friends who find themselves transported back in time to 15th Century Tuscany and Splendor, a touching story set within the aisles of a cinema named Splendor co-starring Marcello Mastroianni in an ode to the magic of cinemagoing.
Featuring an all-star cast including Margherita Buy and Toni Servillo, The First Day of My Life (Il primo giorno della mia vita) is a film about love and the meaning of life from the director of 2016 smash hit Perfect Strangers, Paolo Genovese. Delta is a gritty and compelling drama about a struggle between local fishermen and poachers, played by Alessandro Borghi and Luigi Lo Cascio, on the foggy Po River Delta.
Standout thrillers include Like Sheep Among Wolves (Come percore in mezzo ai lupi) starring Isabella Ragonese as a policewoman who has infiltrated a criminal gang in Rome and Prophets (Profeti) in which Jasmine Trinca delivers a standout performance as Sara, an Italian journalist kidnapped by ISIS who must navigate the relationship she forms with her keeper Nur, a foreign fighter who was radicalised in London.
Films for families include The Properties Of Metals (Le proprietà dei metalli), set in an Italian village in the 1970s where a young boy astounds locals by appearing to bend metal simply through the power of his mind; and heartfelt drama Supernova (Noi anni luce) led by two young rising stars of Italian cinema, Carolina Sala and Rocco Fasano, as a pair of newfound friends who embark on a life changing journey.
The affectionate odd-couple drama Orlandostars Michele Placido as an elderly Italian farmer meeting his granddaughter for the first time in Brussels; and My Soul Summer, starring Italian X Factor winner Casadilego, is the tale of a seventeen-year-old girl who meets a famous (older) singer and discovers her own passion for music.
Festival favourite Marco Giallini stars in the delightful comedy My Shadow Is Your Shadow (La mia ombra è tua), the story of a young university graduate and a famous reclusive writer set out on a road trip to a fair in Milan, where the writer will break over twenty years of silence to deliver a talk.
To kick off the opening week of the festival, there will be free screenings of short films ‘10 Corti Italiani’in association with the Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio in Turin and presented by the Italian Cultural Institutes in Melbourne and Sydney. Canberra will host free screenings on Sunday 17 September. Attendance needs to be confirmed via the ticketing links on the website, where further details are available.
All tickets now on sale. For more information, visit www.italianfilmfestival.com.au
The 2023 ST. ALi Italian Film Festival presented by Palace screens in Canberra from 20 September to 18 October at Palace Electric Cinema.
CW has 5 x ST. ALi Italian Film Festival double passes to be won.
ENTER TO WIN
To enter, email [email protected] with ‘ST. ALi Italian Film Festival’ in the subject field. Tell us your name, full contact details (including street address) and where and when this festival will be held in Canberra. Entries close 9am Friday 15 September 2023 and winners drawn same day. One entry per person. Entrants must be aged 18+.
