©Akis bado
Nine films will animate the Locarno program in Milan, which will be presented in original language and Italian subtitles at the Cinema Arlecchino.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival: “An important bond unites Milan and Locarno; a bond made up of images and cinema, and of projects in the name of the future and the pleasure of invention. An important story, which this year is enriched by a varied and daring program, as is the tradition of our Festival. Young authors who, with a lucid gaze, question the present, searching for new forms of life.”
Four titles come from the Festival’s Concorso Internazionale, including the winner of the Pardo d’Oro, the Lithuanian Toxic (Akiplėša) - a dazzling and offbeat coming-of-age story - which will feature director Saulė Bliuvaitė, in conversation with artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro. The film also won the Swatch First Feature Award. French filmmaker Virgil Vernier will meet the audience at the screening of his 100,000,000,000 (Cent mille milliards), a story of dreams, hopes and fears of various sex workers. Giona A. Nazzaro will also.present BY THE STREAM (SUYOOCHEON), by Korean maestro Hong Sangsoo, the film that won the Best Actress award for Kim Minhee at Locarno77. Hong’s latest deals with the themes of theater, family relationships, and time passing. The Swiss The Sparrow in the Chimney (Der Spatz im Kamin), a feature film dealing with the difficult relationship between two sisters during a family reunion with apocalyptic overtones, will be introduced by director Ramon Zürcher together with producer Silvan Zürcher.
Three further titles come from the Concorso Cineasti del Presente. Here, too, it will be possible to see the winner of the section’s Pardo d’Oro, HOLY ELECTRICITY, by the Georgian debut director Tato Kotetishvili – a tale about alienation, friendship, and the need for intimacy. FOUL EVIL DEEDS by the English filmmaker Richard Hunter is a collection of stories about the evilness of human beings, a black comedy capable of making one laugh out loud at the banality of evil. Director Adele Tulli - who returns behind the camera after Normal - will introduce her REAL, which reflects on humanity in the digital age, to the Milan audience.
Real
The Locarno77 Retrospective, ‘The Lady with the Torch - The Centenary of Columbia Pictures’, finds its way to Locarno in Milan with the screening of one classic film: Twentieth Century, a 1934 film by Howard Hawks. One of the director’s absolute masterpieces, this sophisticated screwball comedy will be introduced by film critic Paolo Mereghetti.
The review will also include the screening of Passo a due, a collection of short films by six young directors - including the Milanese Francesco Manzato -, who will be present in the auditorium together with the actors (some of them grew up in Milan, such as Diego Benzoni, Anna Lazzeri, Maria Caggianelli Villani). The project, produced together with CISA (Conservatorio Internazionale di Scienze Audiovisive), with the support of RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera and supervised by award-winning director Alice Diop, was presented as a Special Event during the Locarno Film Festival.
The programme is part of the Cinema on the Docks project, a creative hub on the Martesana, in the Morando Morandini Library, which from October will be populated by young filmmakers and audiovisual professionals, some of whom will be involved in meetings and mentoring with residents.
Locarno a Milano is a project of Cineteca Milano and Locarno Film Festival, realised with the support of Cinema on the Docks, Fondazione Cariplo, Filmidee, Regione Lombardia, Comune di Milano, Ministero della Cultura, WindeX, Istituto Svizzero and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania.
Passo a due
FRIDAY 11 OCTOBER
18.00 - Passo a due, by Sara Fiechter, David Findlay, Asma Laajimi, Francesco Manzato, Victoria Negreiros, Naomi Pacifique, Switzerland, 2024, colour, 73', language: French/English/Italian. Italian Premiere.
Locarno Film Festival - Special Event
In a luxury hotel, couples meet, clash, play and suffer. An analysis of power relations in the contemporary world made possible thanks to the special location of Locarno's Hotel Belvedere. Six short films made under the supervision of director Alice Diop by young filmmakers who staged stories focusing on the direction of six actors, chosen through a common casting process.
In the presence of directors and actors from the project
19.30 - Aperitif
21.00 - Toxic (Akiplėša), by Saulė Bliuvaitė, Lithuania, 2024, colour, 99', language: Lithuanian, s.t. Italian. Italian Premiere.
Locarno Film Festival – Concorso Internazionale
Dreaming of escaping from the desolation of the industrial city where they were born, the two 13-year-old girls Marija and Kristina forge a unique bond in the local school for models, where the promise of a better life leads the girls to push their bodies into increasingly extreme situations. A dazzling and offbeat coming-of-age story, between the transgressive candour of an early Harmony Korine and the desolation of an East that dreams of European prosperity.
Winner of the Pardo d'Oro - Grand Prize of the Festival and the City of Locarno
Winner Swatch First Feature Award (Best First Feature)
In the presence of Giona A. Nazzaro and director Saulė Bliuvaitė
BY THE STREAM (SUYOOCHEON), ©Jeonwonsa Film Co.
SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER
17.00 - Ventesimo secolo (Twentieth Century), by Howard Hawks, USA, 1934, b/w, 91', language: English, s.t. Italian.
Locarno Film Festival - Retrospective ‘The Lady with the Torch - The Centenary of Columbia Pictures’.
A struggling Broadway impresario tries to convince his ex-girlfriend, now a Hollywood diva, to come back and help him resurrect his failing career. A classic of sophisticated screwball comedy, considered one of the absolute masterpieces of the genre.
Introduction by Paolo Mereghetti
19.00 - 100,000,000,000 (Cent mille milliards), by Virgil Vernier, France, 2024, colour, 77', language: French, s.t. Italian. Italian Premiere.
Locarno Film Festival - International Competition
Afine is a sex worker who does not know what to do with his life; twelve-year-old Julia is the daughter of Chinese billionaires and is being raised by babysitters. They meet by a strange twist of fate and find themselves close, sharing their dreams, hopes and fears. One of the most promising contemporary French filmmakers Virgil Vernier makes an elliptical and seductive work that moves between tenderness, emotion and a now impossible class struggle.
In the presence of director Virgil Vernier
21.00 - BY THE STREAM (SUYOOCHEON), by Hong Sangsoo, South Korea, 2024, colour, 111', language: Korean, s.t. Italian. Italian Premiere.
Locarno Film Festival - International Competition
The young teacher Jeonim asks her famous uncle to stage a play organised by his department. The uncle agrees to take charge, mindful of a similar experience at the same university 40 years earlier. A scandal breaks out among the students and uncle and nephew end up getting involved. The master of Korean cinema Hong Sangsoo reunites with his regular collaborator and muse Kim Minhee in a full-bodied and moving work.
Pardo for Best Performance to Kim Minhee
In the presence of Giona A. Nazzaro
The Sparrow in the Chimney (Der Spatz im Kamin), ©Zürcher Film
SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER
15.00 - FOUL EVIL DEEDS, by Richard Hunter, Great Britain, 2024, colour, 108', language: English / Mandarin, s.t. Italian. Italian Premiere.
Locarno Film Festival - Concorso Cineasti del Presente
A collection of stories about the meanness of human beings: a man struggling with his new job as a toilet cleaner, a family man coming to terms with a moment of weakness, an accountant who gives in to his needs, a group of friends who plot a prank, a parish priest and his wife who deal with an accident, and a lawyer who ends his marriage.
17.00 - The Sparrow in the Chimney (Der Spatz im Kamin), by Ramon Zürcher, Switzerland, 2024, colour, 117', language: German, s.t. Italian. Italian Premiere
Locarno Film Festival – Concorso Internazionale
Karen and Markus live in her parents' idyllic home. For Markus' birthday, Karen's sister Jule arrives. Dark memories of her deceased mother fuel Jule's rebellious spirit towards her sister. And as the house fills with life, Karen's turmoil grows: to make room for the new, the old has to be removed. After the international success of The Girl and the Spider, the Zürcher brothers return with a hypnotic work, capable of weaving actions and psychologies into domestic space with almost choreographic precision.
In the presence of director Ramon Zürcher and producer Silvan Zürcher
Holy Electricity
MONDAY 14 OCTOBER
6.30 p.m. - HOLY ELECTRICITY, by Tato Kotetishvili, Georgia, Netherlands, 2024, colour, 95', language: Georgian, s.t. Italian. Italian Premiere.
Locarno Film Festival - Concorso Cineasti del Presente
When young Gonga and his cousin Bart find a suitcase full of rusty crosses in a scrap yard, Bart gets the idea to turn them into neon crucifixes and sell them door-to-door to the inhabitants of Tbilisi. Their crusade through the city turns into a quest for love and friendship. A dazzling debut by a director capable of transforming alienation into intimacy, aesthetics into narrative, pain into overwhelming passion.
Winner of the Pardo d’Oro – Concorso Cineasti del Presente
20.30 - REAL, by Adele Tulli, Italy, France, 2024, colour, 83', language: Korean/English/German/Italian, s.t. Italian.
Locarno Film Festival - Concorso Cineasti del Presente
Digital devices are no longer just tools, but a gateway to ever-growing augmented worlds, mostly perceived without a physical connection. What is reality made of today? A journey into our humanity in the digital age. After Normal, Adele Tulli continues her anthropological investigation through images, showing one of the exposed nerves of contemporaneity.
In the presence of director Adele Tulli
Subscription for all films in the festival: 20 euros
Reduced for students, over 65s and cinetessera holders: 15 euros
For information and ticket purchase: cinetecamilano.it
