It tells something more than just «postcards from Calabria»! Something more that almost seems like the plot of a screenplay. The Rome Film Festival will start tomorrow in Rome and that beautiful and tormented peninsula that is the tip of the country will be represented by four films shot and made in its splendid territories. All four supported by the Calabria Film Commission Foundation chaired by commissioner Anton Giulio Grande and led by manager Giampaolo Calabrese.
They are works of authorship, productions of great value that have found their location of choice precisely in the magnificent and in some ways truly uncontaminated territory of Calabria. Let’s immediately give a catwalk to the celluloid protagonists who will enliven the days of the Roman event: «US Palmese» will be presented on Thursday, «Hey Joe» on the 23rd, «Naked Hands» on the 24th and «Full of Grace» on the 26th.
There are the Manetti Brosbehind two of the four titles that will be staged during the Roman event dedicated to the Seventh Art. The first is US Palmese with the brothers Antonio and Marco involved in directing and writing the screenplay. The film tells the events linked to the historic Palmi football team, and was filmed in the town overlooking the fantastic Costa Viola. As soon as we left the production of «Diabolik, where are you?», Antonio Manetti confessed to us: «We wanted lightness and for this reason we made this film set entirely in Calabria. US Palmese is Palmi’s football team and it’s about an invented story about a footballer, a Serie A champion who comes to play in Palmi.” The cast includes Rocco Papaleo, Blaise Afonso, Claudia Gerini and also Max Mazzotta from Cosenza. The Manettis are very close to Calabria and Palmi, thanks also to their mother who is a native of Palmi. And on this they stated that «we feel like Palmi. This city doesn’t need to be sponsored, but with the film we wanted to “take advantage” of its beauty, not only naturalistic, but also human.”
The Manetti Bros again, behind Piena di grazie. Palmi is once again at the center of the story in a sort of docufilm, directed by Andree Lucini, which penetrates the heart of one of the oldest and most heartfelt sacred festivals in the center of Palmi: the Varia. Since 2013 also a UNESCO intangible heritage site, the choice of an 11-year-old girl who will have to climb onto the offshoot of a chariot – which reaches a height of 17 meters – has been perpetuated for 500 years to represent the Madonna in her assumption into heaven . The little girl is called Animella, and she is chosen after a severe selection process that goes through very specific characteristics: long, straight and black hair, skin that is not excessively light, and great courage, given that the position on which the chosen one will be secured is very high. Nicole, Giada and Mariateresa are the three girls who compete for the role of Animella in the story told in «Piena di Grazia». And the screenplay pushes itself through a very thorough investigation. It focuses on the little protagonists, on their anxieties, on their fears, on the first approach to their figure, their appearance, a world that they would face a little later, in adolescence. And then there are all the microcosms of the people of Palma. Which Lucini allows to be expressed without artifice to restore a truthfulness and genuineness that represent the strength of the documentary work. It moves between the folds of the religious fact to get much deeper.
«The religious sense that I saw in Palmi is very far from my experience, especially regarding the dogmas on the female figure – said Andree Lucini – but I also felt respect for the community’s ability to preserve such an ancient tradition».
One of the peculiar landscape notes of Calabria is that of uniting mountains and sea in a narrow strip of land, where in a very short time you can go from majestic altitudes to sunny beaches washed by two seas. Hey Joe by Claudio Giovannesi chose as its location the magnificent Pizzo and Villaggio Mancuso, perched on the Silano plateau in what was the Grande Albergo delle Fate, a building declared a national historic monument of notable architectural interest. Already the location of other films in the 1960s and, at the height of its hospitality activity, chosen by many famous people. Giovannesi’s film is set in 1971 and tells the consequences of the war through the relationship between a father and a son. The main performer is an actor who needs no introduction, James Franco.
The era photographs the Neapolitan situation at the dawn of the 70s, the NATO base is stationed right in the Gulf of Campania, and although the end of the Second World War has already passed for a while, the US presence is substantial, and the Italians are pursuing the cult of goods coming from overseas. In this scenario Dean Barry, a war veteran, condemned to loneliness, seeks a sort of spiritual, moral and social redemption. He returns to Naples to meet a son (Francesco Di Napoli) he has never met, conceived by a Neapolitan girl with whom he had had a relationship during the Second World War.
Mauro Mancini’s Naked Hands is the fourth Calabrian film which will be premiered at the Rome Film Festival. The screenplay is taken from the novel of the same name written by Paola Barbato (published by Piemme) and was filmed in many municipalities in the province of Cosenza and Catanzaro: Cetraro, Sangineto, Rovito, Marano Principato, Rose, Castiglione Cosentino, Sant’Andrea Jonio , Soverato and Acquappesa. And many scenes were also filmed in Cosenza, right in the center, in via Panebianco. A geographical and landscape melting pot that highlights the beauties of Calabria, in its many variations. Among the protagonists of the feature film Alessandro Gassman, Renato Carpentieri and Francesco Gheghi. And Alessandro Gassman himself was the protagonist of the city’s excitement during the scenes set in Cosenza. A ferment that was characterized, however, by its composure and respect for cinematographic times and modus operandi.