Return to Calabria: Directors’ Fortnight Confirms ‘Corpo Celeste’

After programming Le Quattro Volte in last year’s Directors’ Fortnight line-up, Frederic Boyer has turned towards Calabria (the toe portion of Italy) once again – confirming to Variety that Alice Rohrwacher’s debut narrative film “Corpo Celeste,” will be among the films included in the sidebar and which also means that it will also be up for the Camera d’or award for Best First Feature (the only award that includes all the Cannes sections). If the name rings a bell, it’s because doc-filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher is the sister of Alba Rohrwacher — the actress who played the adult daughter role in Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (she was also in his 2005 film Melissa P.).

The Rohrwacher family are German-Italians — and certainly some of their displaced DNA is carried over into this drama which when literally translated means “Celestial Body”. The Calabria-set drama is about a 13-year-old girl (Yle Vianello) who relocates to Reggio Calabria with her mother (Anita Caprioli – from Antonio Capuano’s Mario’s War) after growing up in Germany.

Variety mentions that this could be a good year for Italian film with what appears to be sure bets in Nanni Moretti’s “We Have a Pope” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be the Place” both being considered for competition slots — we also think that Emanuele Crialese’s Terraferma has a solid shot at a spot.