The first ever Italian Film Festival Cardiff (IFFC) brings to Wales a dynamic and diverse portrait of Italy, its contemporary society and its contradictions. The selection of films covers diverse genres and narratives of Italian cinematography.
The celebrated LGBT Iris Prize Film Festival (7 – 11 October) will kick-start the event with a coming of age story (Darker than Midnight) dealing with the controversial issue of gender in contemporary Italy.
How to explain Italy to a child is the theme of the award winning (It Will Be a Country). We move from the beauty of poetry (Leopardi) and the crude reality of disillusion (Le cose belle), to a heartrending account of migration (On the Bride’s Side). There is also space for comedy around Italy’s most loved national sport (The Referee).
The Italian Film Festival Cardiff takes place at Cineworld, Chapter Arts and Penarth Pier Pavilion.
Chapter Arts Cardiff and Penarth Pavilion will host the core of the festival.

ALL OUR FILMS HAVE ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Download the brochure here

 

SAT 10 OCT
Più buio di mezzanotte (Darker than Midnight, 2014) in association with IRIS PRIZE
Director: Sebastiano Riso
Running time: 1h 38m/Sub Followed by Q&A with the director
Venue: Cineworld

David runs away from his violent father and ‘blind’ mother and ends up in Catania’s Villa Bellini park, where he starts a coming-of-age journey, becoming part of a group of wandering outcasts. In Riso’s words: “This is a film that gives voice to those who bravely fight in order to reaffirm their non-conformist identity.”

 

We invite you to celebrate the beginning of our Film Festival @Cineworld straight after the film. Come along. It’s FREE!!

 

FRI 16 OCT
L’arbitro (The Referee, 2013)
Starting time: 5.30pm
Director: Paolo Zucca
Running time: 1h 36m/Sub Followed by Skype Q&A with the director
Venue:Penarth Pier Pavilion

Atletico Pabarile is the worst team in the third division, always beaten by the team Montecrastu. When Matzutzi is recruited to Atletico Pabarile after returning from Argentina, the team suddenly starts winning their matches. The film interweaves three stories linked by the two soccer teams. Paolo Zucca uses a variety of cinematographic genres to narrate a comedy on soccer as a metaphor for life.

 

FRI 16 OCT
Io sto con la sposa (On the Bride’s Side, 2014)
Directors: Gabriele Del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry , Antonio Augugliaro
Starting time: 8.30pm
Running time: 1h 38m/Sub Followed by Q&A with Gabriele Del Grande
Venue:Penarth Pier Pavilion

A Palestinian poet and an Italian journalist meet five Palestinians and Syrians in Milan who managed to reach, alive, the Italian island of Lampedusa after fleeing the war in Syria. They decide to help them complete their journey to Sweden, and hopefully avoid getting themselves arrested as traffickers, by faking a wedding. A crazy act of solidarity with those who are fleeing the war in Syria and a declaration for a Europe without borders.

SAT 17 OCT
Sarà un paese (It Will Be a Country, 2014)
Director: Nicola Campiotti
Starting time: 3.30
Running time: 1h 38m/Sub
Children’s Workshop based on the film at 2.30
Venue: Chapter Arts Centre

Nicola, a thirty year old man uncertain about his future and that of his ten year old brother Elia, undertakes a journey with him through Italy in search of a new language to give things their proper names and restore meanings to words. As they wander, the road becomes a path of learning and an exploration of the imaginary. On the border between documentary and fiction, the film describes the hopes of the country that will be.

SAT 17 OCT
Il giovane favoloso (Leopardi, 2014)
Director: Mario Martone
Starting time: 5.30
Running time:2h 23m/Sub
Venue: Chapter Arts Centre

Regarded as the finest Italian poet since Dante, this is the story of the short but intense and prolific life of Giacomo Leopardi. Born in Recanati in 1798, a restless soul, Leopardi sublimely expressed a deep reflection on the human condition, passion for the classics and his platonic love for Silvia.

SAT 17 OCT
Le cose belle (The Beautiful Things, 2013)
Directors: Giovanni Piperno e Agostino Ferrente
Starting time: 8.30pm
Running time: 1h 28m/Sub Followed by Q&A with the director
Venue: Chapter Arts Centre

In 1999 Fabio, Enzo, Adele and Silvana were interviewed to give an insight into the burden of becoming adults with the angst of teenage ingenuity, cynicism, fear and humour, dreaming of the ‘beautiful things’ that awaited them. Ten years later the filmmakers return and over a period of three years look at how their subjects’ expectations have been fulfilled or changed, sometimes swimming against the current and sometimes letting themselves go. This life-affirming film has won 25 national and international awards, including the best Italian documentary 2013 at DOC/IT Professional Award and the Nastro d’argento Special Prize Best Docufilm in 2014

 

For further information and sponsorship please contact: mail.iccw@gmail.com