2024 Venice: Avranas, Alex Ross Perry, Rosenberg, Kerekes, Friedland, Neo Sora & Elizabeth Lo in Orizzonti Selections!

The Un Certain Regard section in Venice, recent winners of the Horizons (Orizzonti) section include Gábor Reisz’s Explanation for Everything, Houman Seyyedi’s World War III and Valentyn Vasyanovych’s Atlantis. Some of the standouts in the selection of nineteen films include Alexandros Avranas‘ Quiet Life – a fascinating portrait about asylum-seekers who fled to Sweden and some crazy syndrome that see their children fall into a coma-type called Resignation Syndrome or Apathy, explained as a self-protection against a feeling of fear. Avranas won the Silver Lion for Best Director for Miss Violence in 2013 and this latest oeuvre is produced by Films du Worso’s Sylvie Pialat. Alex Ross Perry has been working on his experimental musical biopic concert film for some time now, the end result Pavements stars Joe Keery, Fred Hechinger, Nat Wolff, Jason Schwartzman, Logan Miller, Griffin Newman, Tim Heidecker, Michael Esper, Zoe Lister-Jones and Kathryn Gallagher. Locarno selected The Vanishing Soldier (2023) filmmaker Dani Rosenberg will deliver the sobering Of Dogs and Men (produced by Alexander Rodnyansky) – which follows 16-year-old Dar, who returns to her kibbutz to look for her dog who was lost during the terror attack of October 7. She navigates through the horrors etched upon the place and on the faces of people she meets while encountering the stark reality of the unfolding disaster beyond the fence. Neo Sora makes it two for two, premiering Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus at the fest last year and now delivering Happyend. We believe this the project formerly known as Earthquake and looks at two teenage friends in near-future Tokyo, who confront the end of their friendship as they navigate diverging paths into adulthood amid the threat of a catastrophic earthquake. On the docu-side, Stray filmmaker Elizabeth Lo adapts from her short of the same name, this is set in China where rampant adultery has given rise to a new industry devoted to helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity. Wang Zhenxi is part of this growing profession, a “mistress dispeller” who is hired to maintain the bounds of marriage — and break up affairs — by any means necessary. Peter Kerekes (who premiered 107 Mothers in Venice back in 2021 – watch our interview) arrives with Wishing on a Star about Luciana is an Italian astrologer, she believes that life is affected by the position of the constellations at the moment of our birth. And we also have two directorial debuts to watch out for in Anne-Sophie Bailly‘s Mon Inséparable – with Laure Calamy in the lead this revolves around the relationship between a mother, Mona, who raised her disabled son alone and aspires to start caring for herself now that he’s a grown man. But when her son announces that he’s having a baby with his girlfriend, Mona finds herself with another heavy responsibility to bear. Les Films Pelleas’ David Thion produces. A film that we saw a sample sized work in progress at the U.S. in Progress in Wroclaw, Sarah Friedland‘s Familiar Touch is a special film with an authentic touch – and best coined as a coming of (old) age film which follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in an assisted living facility as she contends with her own desires and conflicting self-narratives amidst her shifting age identity and memory.

There is also nine selections in a relatively new sidebar called Horizons Extra (Orizzonti Extra) with a pair of films that caught our attention in Nader Saeivar‘s The Witness which follows a widowed retired teacher who sees the murder of her adopted daughter. When the police refuse to investigate the murder because of the suspect’s status as an important government figure, she decides to publicize everything she knows. Saeivar wrote Jafar Panahi’s 3 Faces (2018). John Swab‘s King Ivory features a true ensemble lead by James Badge Dale and Ben Foster in the backdrop of Tulsa – a narrative that saw some extensive research involving local law enforcement and active gang members. It chronicles the efforts of a joint local, state and federal task force to prevent the trafficking of the Irish Mob in partnership with the Indian Brotherhood and the New Generation Mexican cartel. Here are the complete selections:

HORIZONS
Nonostante – Valerio Mastandrea (OPENER)
Quiet Life – Alexandros Avranas
Mon Inséparable – Anne-Sophie Bailly
Aïcha – Mehdi Barsaoui
Happy Holidays – Scandar Copti
Familia – Francesco Costabile
One of Those Days When Hemme Dies – Murat Firatoglu
Familiar Touch – Sarah Friedland
Marco – Jon Garano, Aitor Arregi
Carissa – Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar
Wishing on a Star, dir: Peter Kerekes
Mistress Dispeller – Elizabeth Lo
The New Year that Never Came – Bogdan Muresanu
Pooja, Sir – Deepak Rauniyar
Of Dogs and Men – Dani Rosenberg
Pavements – Alex Ross Perry
Happyend – Neo Sora
L’Attachement – Carine Tardieu
Diciannove – Giovanni Tortorici