The last films for the Lido were announced this morning with the Giornate Degli Autori (aka Venice Days) folks unveiling their line-up with national cinema coming from Kenya, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Spain, Greece, Italy and two features each from Iran and Lebanon. Ukrainian-born filmmaker Vladlena Sandu’s autobiographical docu Memory will open the section with a looks back at the traumatic childhood memories in war-torn Chechnya. We have Zurich-born Kenyan filmmaker Damien Hauser proposing Memory of Princess Mumbi – a tale set in dystopian backdrop of 2093 about a young filmmaker who sets off to make a documentary about a global conflict that had exploded twenty years earlier. Docu-helmer Cyril Aris moves into fiction with A Sad and Beautiful World – it stars Costa Brava, Lebanon filmmaker Mounia Akl in a romance set in Beirut, where two star-crossed lovers, one an eternal optimist and the other an impulsive pragmatist, must decide if they want to build a family and chart a track to happiness, despite the tragic fates ravaging contemporary Lebanon. Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud will preside over the jury of producer Francesca Andreoli (Vermiglio), helmer Lina Soualem (Bye Bye Tiberias), curator Josh Siegel and cinematographer Sofian El Fani. And the Miu Miu Women’s Tales shorts are back – we have Joanna Hogg and Alice Diop shoring up. Here are the selections:
OFFICIAL COMPETITION
MEMORY (OPENING FILM) – Vladlena Sandu / France, Netherlands
GIOIA – Nicolangelo Gelormini / Italy
BEARCAVE – Stergios Dinopoulos, Krysianna Papadakis / Greece, UK
SHORT SUMMER – Nastia Korkia / Germany, France, Serbia
A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD – Cyril Aris / Lebanon, USA, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
PAST FUTURE CONTINOUS – Firouzeh Khosrovani e Morteza Ahmadvand / Iran, Norway, Italy
MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI – Damien Hauser / Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland
VAINILLA – Mayra Hermosillo / Mexico
LAST NIGHT I CONQUERED THE CITY OF THEBES – Gabriel Azorín / Spain, Portugal
INSIDE AMIR – Amir Azizi / Iran
OUT OF COMPETITION
DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T (CLOSING FILM) – Gianni Di Gregorio / Italy, France
SPECIAL EVENTS
LAGUNA
Director: Sharunas Bartas
Production: KinoElektron
Lithuania, France
WRITING LIFE – ANNIE ERNAUX THROUGH THE EYES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Director: Claire Simon
Production: ROSEBUD PRODUCTIONS
France
I WANT HER DEAD
Director: Gianluca Matarrese
Production: Faber Produzioni
Italy
WHO IS STILL ALIVE
Director: Nicolas Wadimoff
Production: Akka Films
Switzerland, France
DO YOU LOVE ME
Director: Lana Daher
Production: Films de Force Majeure
France
NOTTI VENEZIANE (Venetian Nights)
6:06
Director: Tekla Taidelli
Production: Argo Film – Tranky Film
Italy
AMATA
Director: Elisa Amoruso
Italy
CONFITEOR
Director: Bonifacio Angius
Italy, Poland
UNA COSA VICINA
Director: Loris Nese
Production: Lapazio Film
Italy
DOM (OPENING FILM NOTTI VENEZIANE)
Director: Massimiliano Battistella
Production: Kama Productions / Mess Sarajevo
Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina
FILM DI STATO
Director: Roland Sejko
Italy
INDIETRO COSÌ
Director: Antonio Morabito
Italy
LIFE BEYOND THE PINE CURTAIN – America the Invisible
Director: Giovanni Troilo
Italy
TONI, MIO PADRE
Director: Anna Negri
Production: MIR Cinematografic
WOMEN’S TALES PROJECT (shorts), in collaboration with Prada’s Miu Miu Label
“Autobiografia di una borsetta” (“Autobiography of a Handbag”), Joanna Hogg
“Fragments for Venus,” Alice Diop