The 22nd Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) and Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Mumbai collaborate to present a curated selection of the newest Italian films to Indian audiences, for an unforgettable cinematic journey with a timeless passion for cinema with contemporary flair.
During the Festival (18 to 25 January 2024), audiences will be able to enjoy a wide selection of Italian films that tell the essence of Italian storytelling, innovation and creativity, with as many as eight films featured in the various sections of the festival:
Il sol dell’avvenire | A Brighter Tomorrow
Directed by Nanni Moretti
(OPENING FILM)
18 January, Thursday |7.00 pm | Ganesh Kala Krida Rangmanch, Swargate, Near Nehru Stadium Pune
24 January, Wednesday | 5.00 pm | PVR THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -4
Giovanni, a prolific, pedantic Roman movie director who has just started shooting ‘A Brighter Tomorrow’, a new period drama following an Italian Communist branch leader and his secretary who are thrown into existential chaos by the Soviet Union’s 1956 invasion of Hungary. But everything, both personal and professional, seems to be conspiring against Giovanni: His 40-year marriage and working relationship with Paola is in crisis, his French co-producer Pierre is on the verge of bankruptcy, and—even before its completion—the commercial prospects of his new film in a rapidly changing market are decidedly uncertain. It may be time for Giovanni to start rethinking his stringent way of doing things.
C’è ancora domani | There’s Still Tomorrow
Directed by Paola Cortellesi
(GLOBAL CINEMA)
24 January, Wednesday | 2.10 pm | PVR THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -5
25 January, Thursday | 10.10 am | PVR THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -3
Rome, the latter half of the 1940s. Delia is a wife to Ivano and a mother to her three children: these are the roles that have always defined her. Ivano works to support the family and never misses an opportunity to remind her of the fact. The only person he respects is his father, a man filled with spite, whom Delia has to take care of. In spring, when they celebrate the engagement of Marcella, their eldest daughter, something happens: a mysterious letter leads Delia to hope in brighter future.
Misericordia | Misericordia
Directed by Emma Dante
(GLOBAL CINEMA)
20 January, Saturday | 10.15 am | INOX Camp Screen-4
24 January, Wednesday | 12.20 pm | PVR THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -1
Sicily. Contrada Tuono, a small seaside village with stone huts, surrounded by waste and debris. Behind it, a majestic mountain. This is where Arturo was born and where his mother died giving birth to him. Betta and Nuccia, with the help of young Anna, prostitutes like his mother was, take Arturo in and raise him as if he was their own son. Now eighteen years old, Arturo is seemingly different. He is not like other people his age. Though he looks like a man, he behaves like a child. He is unable to speak and moves in an odd way. Arturo navigates the world with a soul that is at times too pure but inspires hope and joy in the village. But like everyone else in Contrada Tuono, he must fight for survival.
Bella Ciao – Per la Libertà | Bella Ciao
Directed by Giulia Giapponesi
(DOCUMENTARY)
19 January, Friday | 10.15 am | PVR THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -5
21 January, Sunday | 12.00 pm | Cinepolis, Westend Mall, Aundh, Screen -1
For decades, wherever people have fought against injustice, they have sung “Bella ciao.” Some say it was the anthem of Italian partisans fighting against fascism in WWII, but the origins of the song are unclear. Was it a folk song favoured by exploited workers in the rice fields in Italy? The accounts of various speakers are richly illustrated with archive material. Ultimately, the song’s origins are less important than what it means to those who sing it as a call for liberty. A Kurdish woman talks about the magical moment she first heard “Bella ciao” as a child, when it was sung during a demonstration—in the banned Kurdish language. In the film, the song connects the struggles for liberation by different generations in various countries. The main focus is on Italy, Turkey and Iraq, all countries in which democracy is under attack to a greater or lesser degree.
Los Océanos Son Los Verdaderos Continentes | The Oceans Are the Real Continents
Directed by Tommaso Santambrogio
(WORLD COMPETITION)
19 January, Friday | 3.10 pm | Inox Camp Screen -3
22 January, Monday | 5.40 pm | PVR, THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -2
Alex and Edith, a young couple in their 30s, live their relationship made up of small gestures and everyday life among the ruins of Cuban buildings. Milagro, a retired old lady, tries to survive by selling ‘mani’ (typical Cuban peanut cones) and by illegally raising piglets in her backyard. Alain and Frank, two nine-year-old boys, go to school and dream of emigrating together to the United States to become Major League Baseball players. These three narrations and their respective worlds develop in the setting of San Antonio De Los Baños, a town in the Cuban inland, where time has frozen. This scenario incarnates a picture of our times that comes to life thanks to the memory of the characters; it is in this place that the spectre of separation unveils itself, real scourge of the Cuban society.
La Chimera | La Chimera
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
(GLOBAL CINEMA)
21 January, Sunday | 4.45 pm | PVR, THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -1
25 January, Thursday | 12.30 pm | INOX Camp Screen-4
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.
Body Odyssey | Body Odyssey
Directed by Grazia Tricarico
(GLOBAL CINEMA)
23 January, Tuesday | 3.25 pm | PVR THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -1
24 January, Wednesday | 2.40 pm | Inox Camp Screen -1
Mona is a senior bodybuilder who is training for a world championship, her existence is a spasmodic quest for perfection and beauty. Her life is steadily followed by her coach who monitors her single daily actions like a demiurge and an artist: her sleep, her nutrition, her training sessions, her doping dosage, her psychology and even her sexual life. This routine gets interrupted when a young guy appears: a single brief sexual encounter over-balances her discipline and her will. Her body, will start evolving into a separate entity with a different personality.
Rapito | Kidnapped
Directed by Marco Bellocchio
(CLOSING FILM)
25 January, Thursday
12.35 pm | PVR, THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -4
12.40 pm | Inox Camp Screen -3
12.40 pm | Cinepolis Westend Mall Aundh, Screen -3
12.50 pm | PVR, THE PAVALLION MALL, Auditorium -2
In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the cardinal, they have come to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education. Edgardo’s parents, distraught, will do anything to get their son back. Supported by public opinion and the international Jewish community, the Mortaras’ struggle quickly take a political dimension. But the Church and the Pope will not agree to return the child, to consolidate an increasingly wavering power.
Register now for festival pass: https://www.piffindia.com/delegate-registration-form.php