After the Opening Night "Festival Tastings", the 16th edition projections officially started on Saturday 27th at 4.00 pm with the third Nightmare d'Essai title: Jupiter Holdja by Kornèl Mundruczò, the latest work by the Hungarian director who decided to address a particularly burning issue telling the story of Aryan, a young migrant fleeing to Hungary across the Serbian border. An ambitious film that does not limit itself to denouncing the migratory drama, but takes the opportunity to tell something more about human nature by exploiting the supernatural element of the protagonist's flight.
In the evening, the animation This Magnificent Cake! opened the International Feature Film Competition. Arriving from the Quinzane de Realisateurs, the stop motion feature film by Marc James Roels and Emma De Swaef is one of the most amazing animations of the year from which emerges a critical look at colonialism, told in a surreal way through felt dolls and wool masterfully modeled from the two young animators.
The first day of screenings was closed by the title of Japanese October: the latest work by Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Zan (Killing), on the story of a ronin, a samurai without a master, action drama in costume that marks the return of Tsukamoto to direct a feature film after a two-year-old television career that has apparently been in the director's drawer for over 20 years.
Sunday began with the first welcome coffee of this sixteenth edition on the occasion of the free screening of Disney fantasy The Last Warrior by Russian director Dmitryi Dyachenko, which tells the story of Ivan, a boy who finds himself involved in a battle between light and darkness in the enchanted world of Belogorie.
In the afternoon there was the first Q & A with the director Marco Martinelli following the screening of Aung San Suu Kyi's Life under arrest, conducted by the filmmaker Maria Martinelli, where a stimulating debate took place on the birth of this original biopic and the Burmese leader .
It was then the turn of the second feature Isabelle by Robert Heydon, the horror on the vein of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist with the former teen-idol Adam Brody, a film whose dark colors, in the form of obscure presences that persecute the protagonists , hide a deeper analysis on mourning, loneliness and incommunicability of couples.
The first weekend ended with the expected evening of the International Short Film Competition with the selection of the 10 courts of the sixteenth edition: from Slovenia to the United States through Italy itself, the best of the short-format dark production. Created in collaboration with Circolo Sogni "Antonio Ricci", during the screening, introduced by Matteo Papi, Guglielmo Favilla, actor and co-author of Twinky Doo's Magic World of I Licaoni Digital Studio, intervened.
