Date: 28 March – 8 April
Venue: Various Cinemas
For the full programme, please click here.
Tickets available from 12 March 10am onwards at Urbtix.
The largest film festival in Hong Kong in back this year for its 48th edition from 28th March to 8th April! With singer-actress Karena Lam as the ambassador for the festival, the festival will continue to bring exceptional local and international movies to the Hong Kong audience.
The Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong is excited to support the festival and presents Il Grido (1957) by Michelangelo Antonioni, Kidnapped (2023) by Marco Bellocchio and Io Capitano (2023) by Matteo Garrone.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Dorian Gray, Lyn Shaw, Gabriella Pallotti
Italy / 1957 / Italian / 116 minutes / DCP / B&W
Seeing life through a glass darkly, Antonioni probes the soul of a distraught man who seeks a nomadic escape from the woman who deserts him. Realising that everywhere he turns in his search for a job, a place to settle down, and a new embrace offers nothing but dreary adventure, he returns home only to face ultimate disillusionment. An existential portrait of despair and solitude buttressed by a poetic evocation of misty landscapes, this elliptical yet engrossing drama delves deep into the emotions and thoughts that drive a man along his pathway to happiness or death.
Screenings:
28 March (THU) Premiere Elements 9:30pm
30 March (SAT) M+ Cinema 2:30pm
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Cast: Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Enea Sala
Italy, France, Germany / 2023 / Italian, Hebrew / 134 minutes / DCP / Colour
Bellocchio’s lavish drama recounts the unbelievable true story of Edgardo Mortara, a seven-year-old Jewish boy living in 1850s Bologna, who is torn from his family and raised as a Catholic by the Papal State after it is discovered he was secretly baptised as an infant. The family’s efforts to rescue their son spanned decades, and became part of a larger struggle between the Church and the general populace. Exquisitely staged, the film highlights the absurdity of Papal arrogance, the inherent similarities between adversarial faiths, and humanity’s eternal quest for ultimate salvation.
Screenings:
28 March (THU) Premiere Elements 9:15pm
1 April (MON) Premiere Elements 3:00pm
Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawagodo, Hichem Yacoubi
Italy, Belgium, France / 2023 / Wolof, French / 121 minutes / DCP / Colour
Senegalese sensation Seydou Sarr is a revelation as a 16-year-old boy from Dakar who dreams of reaching Europe to secure a better life for his family. Heading out with his cousin, they put their lives into the hands of bandits and charlatans, overcoming one atrocity after another on a gruelling, seemingly impossible odyssey. By turns harrowing, thrilling, magical and life-affirming, Garrone’s (Dogman, Cine Italiano! 2018) exquisitely lensed coming-of-age epic dazzles as both one young man’s baptism of fire, as well as an unflinching exposé of the illegal immigration caravan. Silver Lion for Best Director, Venice.
Screenings:
29 March (FRI) Premiere Elements 2:45pm
31 March (SUN) Premiere Elements 12:30pm