This year the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF45) which will take place from April 1st – 12th will go hybrid in cinemas and online. During the festival, over 190 titles from 58 countries and regions, of which 10 are world, 11 international and 43 Asian premieres, will be presented in close-to 230 screenings in theatres, and nearly 60 films are available through online platform.
For more details and tickets purchase, please visit the official page www.hkiff.org.hk.
FOCUS ON ITALIAN CINEMA
Amidst the global shadow, emerging Italian filmmakers create a cool breeze in world cinema that is refreshing and exhilarating. During the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival, a selection of exciting Italian films – from the most dynamic to profound ones, from realist to absurdist – will be presented with the aim of bringing comfort, inspiration and hope.
Screening Schedule
1 April (HKIFF online) – Sole
3 April (HKIFF online) – Bad Tales
9 April (HKIFF online) – Fortuna – The Girl and the Giants
9 April (HKIFF online) – The Ties
3 April (10:00PM – K11 Art House) – Notturno
4 April (4:30pm – K11 Art House) – Martin Eden
5 April (9:45pm – K11 Art House) – The Ties
6 April (2:00pm – K11 Art House) – Martin Eden
6 April (7:20PM – K11 Art House) – Notturno
7 April (9:45pm – K11 Art House) – Fortuna – The Girl and the Giants
Sole
Director: Carlo Sironi
Cast: Sandra Drzymalska, Claudio Segaluscio, Barbara Ronchi, Bruno Buzzi
Italy / Poland 2019 100min
Fabio hires his directionless slacker nephew, Ermanno, to watch over Lena, a young pregnant Polish woman. He is to pose as the father of her unborn baby so that Fabio can adopt it, thus evading Italy’s anti-surrogacy law. The fake couple soon find themselves developing parental instincts that they never thought they had. A slow-burn melodrama bathed in a cool blue sheen, Sironi’s assured feature debut is a wistful and tender look at the anxiety, anticipation, and life-changing effects of impending parenthood.
Bad Tales
Director: Fabio & Damiano D’Innocenzo
Cast: Elio Germano, Barbara Chichiarelli, Gabriel Montesi, Max Malatesta
Italy / Switzerland 2020 98min
Were any directors more incongruously named than the D’Innocenzo brothers?
Following on from their cynical 2018 coming-of-age-as-accidental-gangsters flic Boys Cry, they turn their sardonic gaze to the underpinnings of “normal” families outside of Rome. In a steaming summer of sex and duplicity, childhood innocence boils away to reveal the turmoil of masculinity that shapes men from boys, and a society rotten to its core. Filmed with lovingly ironic attention to the sounds and colours of summer, with twisted stories nonetheless lurk… and lure us in. Best Screenplay, Berlinale.
Notturno
Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Italy / France / Germany 2020 100min
A street singer gets ready for work; a poacher sets out under the oily, fiery sky; female guerrillas stand guard, stoically; ISIS terrorists pace back and forth in prison, while elsewhere, mothers grieve and the survivors of their unspeakable carnage must live with the trauma. Shot over three years along the borders between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan and Lebanon, Rosi’s latest documentary searches the darkness – in these myriad stories, juxtaposed beyond borders – for a powerful image of human resilience in a war-torn region.
Martin Eden
Director: Pietro Marcello
Cast: Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Denise Sardisco, Vincenzo Nemolato
Italy / France 2019 128min
Transposing Jack London’s quasi-autobiography to 20th century Naples, Marcello traces the personal journey of Martin Eden, from unskilled sailor to acclaimed writer. Awarded Best Actor at Venice, Luca Marinelli stars as the embittered hero, whose struggle is ensnared by his classist prejudices, political musings, and intense disappointment with the life he created. The resulting narrative is reflected in Marcello’s own lyrical vision, through gorgeously textured 16mm cinematography.
The Ties
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio, Laura Morante, Silvio Orlando
Italy 2020 99min
Adapted from the novel by Domenico Starnone, this Venice opening film is an examination of the bonds that bind us together-something stronger than simple love and attraction. Spanning two generations, it is the story of a young couple in the midst of a messy separation, and the impact this rift in their marriage has on their two young children. After 30 years, they remain married, even if the reasons that brought them together have long-since evolved into something infinitely more difficult to define.
Fortuna – The Girl and the Giants
Director: Nicolangelo Gelormini
Cast: Cristina Magnotti, Valeria Golino, Pina Turco
Italy 2020 108min
Imagining herself to be a princess from another planet, Fortuna uses her magical powers to fight off giants, who exist not only in her dream world. After a tragic accident befell one of her playmates, an obscure secret surfaces that unveils a horrible truth. Transforming a true story into a surreal, grim fairy tale, first-time director Gelormini filters frightening reality through the dark imagination of David Lynch, in a fragmentary and dreamlike structure. Seen through the eyes of a child, Fortuna creates a provocative, chilling emotional power.
During the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival, three Italian co-productions will be also presented:
An Officer and a Spy
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Louis Garrel, Emmanuelle Seigner, Grégory Gadebois
France, Italy / 2019 / French / 131 minutes / Color
Controversial filmmaker Roman Polanski shores up his position as one of Europe’s greatest living auteurs with this long-gestating retelling of France’s infamous Dreyfus Affair. Infusing the story of a Jewish soldier wrongly convicted of treason with an ample helping of political prescience, this feisty courtroom epic centers on Picquart, the head of counter-espionage who discovered the real culprit, and exposed systemic antisemitism within the French military and society at large. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Venice.
2 April (7:15PM – K11 Art House) & 10 April (4:25 PM – Hong Kong Cultural Centre)
Andrey Tarkovsky. A Cinema Prayer
Director: Andrey A. Tarkovsky
Italy, Russia, Sweden / 2019 / Russian / 97 minutes / Color
The brief life and transformative power of Russian master Andrey Tarkovsky is recalled in this powerful elegy compiled by his own son. Weaving audio recordings from Tarkovsky himself and readings of his works by his father (the poet Arseny Tarkovsky), together with clips from his films, and archival footage from the locations that shaped both the master and his works, this powerful evocation offers new insights into a towering figure in cinema.
2 April (5:00PM – K11 Art House) & 6 April (HKIFF online)
Marghe and Her Mother
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cast: Ylenia Galtieri, Margherita Pantaleo, Raffaella Gallo
Italy, UK / 2019 / Italian / 101 minutes / DCP / Color
Struggling with both financial and romantic travails, a young single mother has to leave her six-year-old daughter in a convent while she searches for work, only to be drawn into a maelstrom of crime after she is tricked by two men who steal puppies for ransom. With a moral link to Italian neorealism, Makhmalbaf’s (The President, 39th) empathetic lens continues its exploration of poverty and social issues through the eyes of a hilariously insolent girl, who shatters the illusion of love, religion and human dignity.
2 April (2:00PM – K11 Art House) & 7 April (HKIFF online)
* 2 April: Meet-the-filmmaker through video or live streaming