Italian Cinema Today

Production has begun on the  follow up to  Emma Dante's debut feature   Via Castellana Bandiera (A Street in Palermo).  Le  sorelle  Macaluso ( The Macaluso Sisters) is the story of a matriarchal family of five siblings from childhood through old age. Set in Palermo, the film will follow each of the sisters through the choices that set the course of their lives. Le sorelle Macaluso stars Alissa Maria Orlando, Susanna Piraino, Anita Pomario, Eleonora De Luca, Viola Pusatieri, Donatella Finocchiaro, Serena Barone, Simona Malato, Laura Giordani, Maria Rosaria Alati, Rosalba Bologna and Ileana Rigano. T he film will be released in Italian theatres in 2020.

"Cinema is about the gaze, about where someone is looking. I love to make movies where a character is thinking the line but not speaking the line.” One of Italy’s most prolific and visionary filmmakers, Ferzan Ozpetek, draws inspiration from situations in everyday life and adds his unique point-of-view to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Born in Turkey in 1959, Ozpetek moved to Rome two decades later to work in theater and assist various film directors.  In 1997, he made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed Hamam Turkish Bath , which went on to win two Golden Globes for Best New Director and Best Soundtrack. Since then, Ozpetek has directed some of the most beautiful and profound films of contemporary Italian cinema. He calls upon his own life experiences when deciding on a film project. He then builds upon that experience with his writing partner and close friend of more than 30 years, Gianni Romoli. Together, they transform an idea into a maste

Michela Occhipinti’s “Flesh Out,” which is in the  International Narrative Competition  of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, will take you into a world filled with emotion. Watching this film, you will feel disbelief, anger and sadness but if you look deeply, you’ll realize how similar the characters’ struggles are to your own. Gavage is a centuries old tradition practiced in the West African country of Mauritania in which a young woman prepares for marriage by gaining a considerable amount of weight. The weight gain is symbolic of good health and prosperity. However, in 2019, many young people are not embracing this facet of their heritage.  Verida (Verida Beitta Ahmed Deiche) is one of those people. Engaged to a man she’s never met, Verida is forced by her mother day in and day out to eat heaping bowls of food and milk, 10 servings a day to be exact. When you look beyond the emotional trauma and consider the physical, long term damage that 10 meals a day consisting of me