Six feature films will compete for the best film, all united by the theme of travel in its many forms: real, experienced and metaphorical.
From Italy, Assandira by Salvatore Mereu with Gavino Ledda, Anna König, Marco Zucca Corrado Giannetti, Samuele Mei. Soaked in water right into the bones, Costantino screws himself onto the haystack like an old wood returned to the earth by the stormy sea. The torrential rain has just finished putting out the fire that ate the farm in the middle of the woods, Assandira, in one night. But the rain did not quench the pain, the burning remorse for the son who died in the midst of the flames and was unable to save. At dawn, the first to arrive are the carabinieri and the young magistrate: Costantino tries to tell them what happened on that last night, to explain how it all began …
From France in Italian preview: A Fishy Business in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon by Christian Monnier with Céline Mauge, Jules Sitruk, Philippe Rebbot, Claire Nadeau, Patrick Bouchitey. Céline, is hired by the famous director Milan Zodowski to interpret a mysterious film shot in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. He arrives there to discover that the troupe is made up only of a sound engineer and a head of unit and that Milan stubbornly refuses to leave the cabin in which he is locked up. Céline realizes that filming will not take place. So he chooses to face his fate. This plunge into reality forces her to open up to herself and to others …
Khape by Suchita Bhatia arrives from India with Aditya Lakhia, Chirag Modi, Karan Patel. Ali, 9, lives in a world where education has no value. His friends work as factory workers. Despite living in a community where education is disapproved, Ali’s father insists that he be educated for the opportunities it offers.
Also from Italy we find Miss Marx by Susanna Nicchiarelli with Romola Garai, Patrick Kennedy (II), John Gordon Sinclair, Felicity Montagu, Karina Fernandez. The film, fresh from the victory at the Silver Ribbons, stars the brilliant, cultured, free and passionate Eleanor, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. Among the first women to approach the issues of feminism and socialism, she participates in workers’ struggles, fights for women’s rights and the abolition of child labor. When, in 1883, she meets Edward Aveling, her life changes forever, overwhelmed by a passionate love but a tragic destiny.
Nour by Maurizio Zaccaro with Sergio Castellitto, Linda Mresy, Valeria D’Obici, Thierry Toscan, Raffaella Rea. The film tells the story of a ten-year-old girl, who alone made a hard journey to reach Europe. Her name is Nour (Linda Mresy) and, after having crossed the Mediterranean and survived a violent shipwreck unscathed, she arrived in Lampedusa, where she was rescued by the doctor Pietro Bartolo (Sergio Castellitto). The man becomes her hero, he takes care of her and tries to reconstruct Nour’s story piece by piece and at the same time he tries to give her a present and a peaceful future, as all children of her age should have.
Siberia by Abel Ferrara with with Willem Dafoe, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney, Cristina Chiriac, Daniel Giménez Cacho. The film shot between Italy, Germany and Mexico stars Clint, a tormented man in search of himself who has retired to an isolated shack in the ice, in the hope of regaining serenity. Clint runs a small club, frequented by the rare passing travelers and the few inhabitants of the area. However, isolation does not help him find peace. One evening, with his sled and his dogs, he sets out on a journey to the world he once knew, in an attempt to face himself. It is a journey into dreams, memory and imagination, in search of its true nature.
Out of competition El silencio del rio by Colombian director Carlos Tribiño Mamby with Johnny Forero Gómez, Hernán Méndez. The protagonist of the film is Anselmo, a child forced to become an adult after having touched death and its consequences. However, the film is also the portrait of Epifanio, a quiet farmer. Two stories that touch and meet in a tragic epilogue.