ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL in SCOTLAND

The Front Line
La prima linea 15

Directed by Renato De Maria

Italy/Belgium/UK/France 2009 • 1h41m 35mm • Italian with English subtitles • 15

Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio, Giovanna ezzogiorno, Fabrizio Rongione.

The tumultuous political events of the late Sixties that swept across Europe left a particular mark on Italy. The radical Red Brigades, committed to the violent overthrow of the State, were formed out of the student protests of 1968. La prima linea was an Italian terrorist organisation, founded in the late Seventies and even more extreme in its methods. Director Renato De Maria tackles his subject from the perspective of his male protagonist, who looks back from his jail cell on his youthful exploits with understanding, candour and remorse.

The Big Dream
Il grande sogno 15

Directed by Michele Placido

Italy/France 2009 • 1h41m • 35mm
Italian with English subtitles

Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca, Luca Argentero.

The place is Italy; the year is 1968: A time when young men and women fostered the dream of ‘changing the world’, and when the rules set by the Establishment were broken and love was free. Nicola, a police offi cer from Puglia, goes undercover to spy on the leaders of the leftist student movement. There, at the university, he meets Laura, an idealist committed to the fi ght for a world free of injustice, and Libero, leader of the student ‘revolution’. Michele Placido’s semi-autobiographical account has a great sense of period, and uses to perfection the talents of the young leads.

The Unknown Woman
La sconosciuta 18

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

Italy/France 2006 • 1h58m • 35mm
Italian with English subtitles • 18
Print courtesy Adriana Chiesa Enterprises

Cast: Xenia Rappoport, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alessandro Haber.

Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore is back at the very top of his form with this dark, troubling contemporary thriller. Xenia Rappoport is Irina, a Ukranian girl drawn into an international prostitution ring. Now in her thirties, she works as a cleaner, rents an expensive apartment and worms her way into the affections of an unsuspecting family. Her true motives fuel a brooding sense of suspense, but the sheer hell of her past life ensures that she is never unsympathetic as the fi lm builds to a gripping climax, propelled by a cracking Ennio Morricone score.

It’s All Judas’ Fault
Tutta colpa di Giuda 15

Directed by Davide Ferrario

Italy 2009 • 1h42m • 35mm
Italian with English subtitles • 15

Cast: Kasia Smutniak, Fabio Troiano, Gianluca Gobbi, Cristiano Godano, Luciana Littizzetto.

A prison-set musical where docu-style talking heads alternate with inmates workshopping an all-dancing, allsinging reinterpretation of the Crucifi xion. Young theatre director Irena (Kasia Smutniak) comes to a Turin prison to develop a performance piece with the convicts. She is forced to tackle Christ’s Passion as her subject, and hits a brick wall when none of the prisoners will play Judas. So she develops another idea: present the Jesus story but without a traitor, and without the sacrifi ce.

A Stroke of Luck
Questione di cuore 15

Directed by Francesca Archibugi
Italy 2009 • 1h44m • 35mm
Italian with English subtitles • 15

Cast: Kim Rossi, Stuart, Antonio Albanese, Micaela Ramazzotti.

Angelo and Alberto have nothing in common. Angelo is a typical family man, married with children, running his own business garage; Alberto is a screenwriter, a man of abstract ideas, a loner unable to fully commit to his girlfriend. A heart attack brings both men face to face with mortality, and they meet each other when they share a hospital room. The two men become close friends against all odds and end up learning a lot from each other. The story of a special friendship and the things that really matter in life, told with a light touch and keen humour.

Cosmonauta 12A

Directed by Susanna Nicchiarelli

Italy 2009 • 1h27m • 35mm
Italian with English subtitles • 12A

Cast: Pietro Del Giudice, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Angelo Orlando, Claudia Pandolfi , Marianna Raschillà.

In the early sixties Arturo and Luciana, brother and sister and passionate communists, follow the progress of the space race together, urging on the Soviet cosmonauts. However as they reach adolescence, the relationship between the two gets a little complicated: Luciana, assertive and unconventional, starts going out with boys, and is ashamed of her odd brother, who shows no signs of growing up.

Black Sea
Mar nero 15

Directed by Federico Bondi

Italy/Romania/France 2008 • 1h35m • 35mm
Italian and Romanian with English subtitles • 15
Print courtesy Film Kairos

Cast: Ilaria Occhini, Doroteea Petre, Corso Salani, Vlad Ivanov, Maia Morgenstern.

Relations between the elderly and somewhat bitter widow Gemma (Ilaria Occhini) and her young Romanian caretaker Angela (Doroteea Petre) are fraught at fi rst. But the friendship between the two lonely women develops and they come to depend on one another. When Angela’s husband goes missing in Romania, Gemma must decide how far she is prepared to go in order to help her friend.

White Space
Lo spazio bianco 15

Directed by Francesca Comencini

Italy 2009 • 1h36m • 35mm
Italian with English subtitles • 15

Cast: Margherita Buy, Gaetano Bruno, Giovanni Ludeno, Antonia Truppo, Guido Caprino.

A middle-aged, somewhat footloose teacher becomes pregnant from a short-lived affair, gives birth to a premature baby, and fi nds her life revolving around her hopes and fears for the tiny child. Margherita Buy – in a towering performance – brings sensititivity, emotional empathy and a sense of genuine bewilderment to her predicament, as she tries to lead a semblance of normal life, existing in the confi nes of a hospital ward where many women from different backgrounds are in exactly the same situation as her.