Cannes have the Un Certain Regard section, and Venice has the Orizzonti. While we do find some fresh new voices from the nineteen films selected we also find fresh new works from the likes of India’s Anuparna Roy, Greece’s Jacqueline Lentzou, Bangladeshi’s Rubaiyat Hossain, Thailand’s Phuttiphong Aroonpheng and the United States of America in Robert Greene.
Like Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari, Anuparna Roy will make it two films in two back to back Venice editions. She won the Best Director award last year for Songs of Forgotten Trees, now she brings Lovers In The Blue Night which is set in Mumbai, the film follows four migrants – a gay husband, his wife working in a bar, a thief, and a pimp. After Berlinale preemed Moon, 66 Questions, Lentzou’s A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra is about a dreamy 15-year-old who chases a choir audition while navigating family conflict, unaware that her recurring cosmic visions are shaping her day. Hossain’s fourth feature has received a ton of film lab support – The Difficult Bride is a feminist supernatural drama set in Dhaka, Bangladesh where the path to marriage becomes a physical and psychological struggle. A big winner in this exact section back in 2018 with the sublime Manta Ray, Aroonpheng’s The Burning Giants is set in two spaces and sees a mysterious toxic smog infecting Bangkok’s migrant workers. And always working under the radar, indie filmmaker Robert Greene returns to Venice – he has concocted Too Much Sugar – a film about one family that unsurprisingly plays with docu and fiction conventions. Here are the selections:
Orizzonti
La Ragazza Con La Leica – Alina Marazzi
The Burning Giants – Phuttiphone Aroonpheng
What Belongs To Others – Grzegorz Debowski
Una Storia – Anna Foglietta
La Citta Dei Vivi – Edoardo Gabbriellini
Moragheb – Mohsen Gharaei
Too Much Sugar – Robert Greene
The Difficult Bride – Rubaiyat Hossain
La Maison Du Vent – Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
I Figli Della Scimmia – Tommasco Landucci
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra – Jacqueline Lentzou
Oasis – Jannis Lenz
Until The Day Ends – Jelena Maksimovic
La Moula – Jerome Pierrat
Lovers In The Blue Night – Anuparna Roy
Un Détour Par Diane – Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni
The Color Of The Sun – Xavier Tera
Eklipse – Manuel Wetscher
Big Little Things – Michelle Zhou
