Our next book event will be at The Little Man Coffee Company Ivor House, Bridge Street
Cardiff CF10 2EE at 7 pm.

Author Shirin Ramzanali Fazel will join us to talk about her book Far From Mogadishu. This event is in English and Italian. The entry is free but book in advance to avoid disappointment.

‘There was time when my country was the country of fairy tales, a country where every child would want to grow and play’. This is the story of the author’s physical and emotional journey from her war-torn homeland, Somalia. Some time after the
military coup in 1969 Shirin left Mogadishu and moved to Italy to make a new life and home for herself and her family. Since then she has crossed continents and lived in several cities, facing the challenge of integrating with many different kind of society before settling in England in 2010. This book encapsulates her reflections on the Somali diaspora.

Come and join us @Octavo’s Bookshop to discuss Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti.  The book has sold more than 700,000 copies since its publication in 2001, and has been translated in twenty languages.  Mixed language abilities welcome.

 Sunday 8 October From 2pm.

Cari Amici

I am Helen and have been a member of the Italian Cultural Centre Wales since it began in 2015.

During this time I have been inspired by the events organised by the Centre.

The Book Club and most importantly the Italian Film Festival with its objective contemporary focus have challenged and developed my understanding and appreciation of the Italy of today.

The Centre also does valuable, regular work in language maintenance for children.

Among the Centre’s varied programme for 2016 – 17 I am sure that we all have a favourite.

Now the Centre’s programme of events for 2017-18 is about to begin.

I am looking forward to the third  Italian Film Festival which will be at Chapter Arts Centre 24 – 26 November.

This year the Festival will present several British premieres including films shown recently at the Venice Film Festival.

This is a great reason to renew our individual membership of the Italian Cultural Centre Wales.

The Centre relies on our subscriptions and on the generosity of its’ sponsors as the life blood of its programme.

The annual fee is still only £15.00 and I am sure that any one-off donations would also be greatly appreciated.

Mille grazie a tutti

Tanti cari saluti e ci vediamo

Helen Vallis

Our new logo, born out of the remarkable craft of Casati Graphic Studio, was conceived by putting together less obvious symbols of both Welsh and Italian cultures, without diverting the attention from the main protagonists of the Festival: the films.
The word ‘Festival’ is the pivotal link between the two cultures. The main point of reference: the figure of the joker, a precursor of today’s recreation industry, who in past times had the task to entertain royals and their courts, telling tales of far-away lands, epic adventures and breath-taking landscapes. Together the joker’s hat and the king’s crown represent here both the symbol of the Matter of Britain/the Arthurian Cycle (one of the pillars of Anglo-Celtic culture) and of the Carnival, the Italian festival par excellence, with its masks and its wider theatrical dimension. The logo also plays with the acronym ‘IFF’, derived from the initials of ‘Italian Film Festival’ and the final letters of ‘Cardiff’, rather than its initial ‘C’.
Our new logo evokes all these elements: the joker’s hat, the royal crown, the letters IFF and the classic form of the ionic columns (a symbol of Italian art for centuries) all tied together by the flowing of the reel, the most immediate image representing the idea of the Film.