Contemporanea is the section of Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest closely connected to the main news presented in the greatest international markets and film festivals, which offers exclusive titles still little known to Italian distribution. Three works this year: first is on Thursday 31 October with the national premiere of Simon Rumley's last gangster movie Once Upon a Time in London, to then continue on Friday 1 November with 9 Doigts by F.J. Ossang, winner of the Pardo for Best Directing at 70th Locarno Film Festival, and ending on Sunday 3 November with the documentary on the Satanic Temple directed by Penny Lane and presented at the Sundance Film Festival, Hail Satan?.
Among the Festival special guests also the filmmaker and artist F.J. Ossang, known for his existentialist-punk style, and Simon Rumley, one of Britain's best independent directors.
Simon Rumley, "historic" director of Ravenna Nightmare, already awarded in 2016 for Johnny Frank Garrett's Last Word (Golden Ring for Best Film) and in 2017 for Fashionista (Critics Award for Best Director), will be at the Palazzo dei Congressi on the evening of Thursday 31 October to attend the national premiere of his Once Upon a Time in London and meet the public in the Q&A following the screening, conducted by our collaborator Silvia Moras. Rumley's latest work narrates the rise and fall of the violent realm of the famous London gangsters Jack 'Spot' Comer and Billy Hill, in a crescendo of madness, chaos and manipulation reminiscent of the best British gangster stories like Legend and Peaky Blinders.
The encounter with Frédéric-Jacques Ossang will be held instead on the evening of Friday 1 November. The director, winner of the Pardo for Best Direction at the 70th Locarno Film Festival, will participate in an interview led by essayist and film critic Mariangela Sansone, which will be followed by the screening of his magical noir 9 Doigts. The film draws the viewer into a world of which he does not have the coordinates: Magloire, of whom we know nothing, is visibly nervous while in a station where he may be trying to catch a train. When some soldiers appear on the platform, checking the documents of those present, the protagonist leans out on a beach, where he runs into a dying man who gives him a large sum of money. It will be just that mysterious booty that will put on its way a criminal gang headed by the dreaded "9 fingers".
