Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2019

Piranhas

Based on a novel by Roberto Saviano, Piranhas is a haunting reflection on doomed adolescence following a pack of cocksure hellions as they descend into the violent, paranoid world of Naples's dominant crime group.

Capri-Revolution

Q&A with Mario Martone and screenwriter Ippolita Di Majo

Mario Martone’s stirring period drama centers on a young goatherd living on the island of Capri in 1914, alongside a commune of free-spirited Northern European artists and intellectuals who have retreated to the lush Mediterranean idyll to put their fledgling ideologies into practice.

La Commare Secca

Bernardo Bertolucci made an auspicious filmmaking debut at 21 with this savvy, meticulous murder mystery adapted from a short story by Pier Paolo Pasolini about the police’s attempt to reconstruct the story of a prostitute’s death.

Dafne

North American Premiere · Q&A with Federico Bondi

A young woman with Down syndrome copes with the death of her mother in Federico Bondi’s FIPRESCI-winning sophomore feature, anchored by a breakout performance from Carolina Raspanti.

The Disappearance of My Mother

Q&A with Beniamino Barrese

Cinematographer Beniamino Barrese’s directorial debut is an intimate, vignette-like documentary portrait of his mother, the Italian model and activist Benedetta Barzini. Taking this formidable woman as its protagonist, the film opens up into an exploration of beauty, womanhood, aging, and image-making.

Euforia

 Q&A with Valerio Mastandrea on June 8

When Ettore (Valerio Mastandrea), a public-school teacher of modest means, is diagnosed with an illness, he goes to stay with his brother Matteo (Riccardo Scamarcio) in his sprawling Roman bachelor pad, where the two men must reckon with long-unresolved family tensions and resentments, in actor-director Valeria Golino’s quietly wrenching drama.

If Life Gives You Lemons

Q&A with Ciro D’Emilio

A teenage boy’s dreams of soccer stardom are threatened by a chaotic home life in this achingly naturalistic portrait of a young man striving to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds.

Laughing

North American Premiere · Q&A with Valerio Mastandrea and Chiara Martegiani

After a young man dies in a controversial workplace accident, those who loved him grapple with what it means to go on living in this powerful, poetic exploration of the myriad ways we grieve, cope, and find hope in the face of loss.

Loro

The Oscar-winning director of The Great Beauty returns with a satirical reimagining of the fall of Silvio Berlusconi (Toni Servillo) with traces of Fellini and Scarface.

Lucia’s Grace

In Gianni Zanasi's pleasantly original comedy about faith and acceptance in the modern world, Alba Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro) stars as a land surveyor and single mother whose compassion is tested when she learns that her new building project threatens the environmental safety of the city.

Magical Nights

North American Premiere

Three young screenwriters being questioned for a murder recount their wild adventures navigating the declining Italian film industry of the 1990s in this sparkling murder mystery and film industry satire.

Normal

North American Premiere

A standout from the Berlin Film Festival, Adele Tulli’s atmospheric documentary looks at the ways that conventional gender expression is instilled and reinforced.

Ricordi?

North American Premiere · Q&A with Valerio Mieli

The past resurfaces in sensory bursts in Valerio Mieli’s evocative romance, in which a couple struggles to recapture the urgency that brought them together.

Selfie

North American Premiere · Q&A with Agostino Ferrente on June 9

Several years after an unarmed teenager was shot by police in the Traiano region of Naples, Agostino Ferrente recruited a pair of 16-year-old boys in the gang-ravaged neighborhood to capture their daily lives using smartphone cameras in “selfie” mode. The result is a moving chronicle of adolescence shaped by economic precarity and the improbable persistence of hope.

Sono Gassman! Vittorio re della commedia

North American Premiere · Q&A with Fabrizio Corallo

This brisk, engaging documentary surveys the life, work, and legacy of Vittorio Gassman, the Italian screen icon who went from serious dramatic stage actor to one of the greatest practitioners of commedia all’italiana.

Twin Flower

Q&A with Laura Luchetti

In writer-director Laura Luchetti’s strikingly photographed second feature, two teenagers on the run from personal demons form a relationship as they embark on a dangerous trip across the tough and breathtaking terrain of Sardinia.

The Vice of Hope

Q&A with Edoardo de Angelis

A woman desperately fights to escape the criminal underworld she was born into in this breathless tale of resilience and unexpected grace.