17 NOVEMBER - 4 DECEMBER 2006

The part of the Italian Film Festival devoted to first and second films has garnered a lively selection from actor Kim Rossi Stuart’s impressive directorial debut through a dark thriller to voyeurism and a journey to parts of Naples the tourists never see. Mark these names and watch them for them in the future.

Along the Ridge / Anche libero va bene (15)

Dir: Kim Rossi Stuart

Actor Kim Rossi Stuart has received an exceptionally strong response for his first film as a director, Anche Libero va Bene (Along the Ridge). He explores the world of Tommi, an 11-year-old who lives with his father, Renato, and sister Viola. His mother has abandoned the family, but the three have been able to work out a liveable arrangement, subject to Renato’s mood swings and very high expectations for his children. Then one day, without warning, Tommi’s mother, Stefania, returns home, threatening the fragile balance that defines his family life. Despite her efforts towards him, Tommi is distrustful of his mother and prevents her from getting close, yet meanwhile he also begins to see his father in a new light. Kim Rossi Stuart, who also plays Renato, displays tremendous confidence and an assured style as he guides his characters through this emotional minefield, as each dialogue exchange, each gesture seems to hold double meaning. In the crucial role of Stefania, Rossi Stuart cast Barbora Bobulova, recently awarded for her work with Ferzan Ozpetek (Sacred Heart) and one of Italy’s hottest new talents.

Cast: Kim Rossi Stuart, Barbora Bobulova, Alessandro Morace, Marta Nobili.
2006. 108mins

Floor 17 / Piano 17 (18)

Dir: Manetti Bros

London Riverside 19 Nov 8.40pm & 22 Nov 6.45pm
Edinburgh 25 Nov 3.00pm
Glasgow 26 Nov 4.30pm
Dundee 27 Nov 8.30pm

Mancini (Giampaolo Morelli) must place a bomb inside the offices of a big bank, in order to destroy some important and burdensome documents belonging to a dodgy customer. After disguising himself as a member of the cleaning staff, and priming the bomb with a timer, he gets trapped in the elevator with two unsuspecting clerks (Elisabetta Rocchetti and Giuseppe Soleri), who are returning home from work. Outside the building his two accomplices, Pittana and Borgia (Enrico Silvestrin and Antonino Iuorio), are keeping on eye on the situation, apparently waiting for the man to complete his mission.
With time working against him and the pressure reaching the boiling point, Mancini begins to realize that his two friends might not be looking out for him as they are supposed to…

Cast: Giampaolo Morelli, Enrico Silvestrin, Elisabetta Rocchetti, Antonio Iuorio, Giuseppe Soleri, Massimo Ghini.
2005. 105mins.

I Can See it in your Eyes / Te lo leggo negli occhi (15)

Dir: Valia Santella

Nanni Moretti's sometime assistant Valia Santella makes her feature helming debut. Stefania Sandrelli plays a fading nightclub chanteuse whose daughter rejected her mother's showbiz trappings years earlier, but thanks to a spunky granddaughter reconciliation is at hand. A gentle pan across Naples cuts to a hospital where Margherita (Sandrelli) wakes from an operation on her vocal cords. She's already making plans for her next performance, but no one's willing to tell her she may not sing again, including loving but long-suffering hubby Carlo (Luigi Maria Burruano). Family dynamics are slanted, since daughter Chiara (Teresa Saponangelo) never could stand her mother's need for the spotlight. She lives in Rome, a divorcee working as a speech therapist and raising her young daughter Lucia (Camilla di Nicola. When an extramarital indiscretion fizzles away, Margherita looks to her daughter and granddaughter for company. Lucia thinks her glamorous grandma is the bee's knees, and Margherita soaks in the uncomplicated love. The day of her gig Margherita scoops up her tiny acolyte and takes Lucia down to Naples without bothering to tell Chiara, who becomes frantic in her search for the errant duo. Director of photography Tommaso Borgstrom knows how to make both Naples and Rome look great.

Cast: Stefania Sandrelli, Teresa Saponangelo, Camilla di Nicola, Luigi Maria Burruano, Ernesto Mahieux, Mariano Rigillo, Catherine Spaak, Stefano Abbati, Silvia Cohen, Sergio Albelli, Betti Pedrazzi, Cloris Brosca, Tonino Taiuti, Riccardo Zinna.
2004. 81mins.

Jimmy from the Hill / Jimmy della collina (18)

Dir: Enrico Pau

Dismayed by the prospect of a lifetime spent toiling at the local oil refinery, the teenaged rebel in Enrico Pau's cautionary tale Jimmy della Collina discovers that armed robbery only leads to a worse kind of imprisonment. Impressive performances, especially from Nicola Adamo, as the fiery Jimmy, and Valentina Carnelutti, as a woman who works with young offenders. His father's acceptance of work amid the grim furnaces and stacks at the refinery condemns Jimmy to a gloomy future. While petty crimes offer distraction at first, he quickly aims higher. Director and co-writer Pau, working from a novel by Massimo Carlotto, quickly sketches the young man's disenchantment, which is fed by tall tales of past crimes by blowhards in the local bars. Bored with his girlfriend Jimmy urges his buddies on from burglary to robbing banks but they chicken out and he is caught and incarcerated.

Cast: Barbara Bobulova, Andrea Di Stefano
2006. 90 mins.

Mother Nature / Mater Natura (18)

Dir: Massimo Andrei

A serio-comic look at a transsexual hooker and her florid circle of friends exerts a weird fascination. Novice director and screenwriter Massimo Andrei finds post-op call girl Desiderio (Maria Pia Calzone) is all set to give up streetwalking when she bags studmuffin Andrea (Valerio Foglia Manzillo). Problem is, he's got a fiancee and can't choose. Best friend Massimo (Vladimir Luxuria) is there to pick up the pieces, along with a group of queens setting up a Vesuvian retreat called Mater Natura (Latin for Mother Nature). Calzone has enough charisma to carry her scenes. Italy's best-known drag performer, Luxuria appears - in a trousers role.

Cast: Maria Pia Calzone, Valerio Foglia Manzillo, Enzo Moscato, Vladimir Luxuria, Luca Ward, Fabio Brescia, Franco Javarone, Teresa Del Vecchio, Gino Curcione, Sara Carbone, Erma Castriota, Shanti Duclercq, Franco Ruggiero, Aldo De Martino, Tina Femiano.
2005. 92mins.

The Spectator / La Spettatrice (18)

Dir: Paolo Franchi

Rarely has voyeurism been shown to possess such melancholy beauty as is displayed here. Aided by Giuseppe Lanci's atmospheric, nearly hypnotic photography and Barbara Bobulova's delicate, somnambulistic performance, this story of a woman who slowly becomes obsessed by her neighbour - drawn closer and closer despite herself - exerts a magnetic fascination of its own. Valeria (Bobulova), who works as a simultaneous interpreter, shares her Turin apartment with a girlfriend. Through her rear window, she can see into the lit portals of the solitary man across the way (Andrea Renzi) and can watch him as he talks on the phone or plays with his dog. She seems content to live on the fringes of experience, wandering alone though the arcaded streets of the city, frequenting a disco for an occasional one-night stand. But when the man she has been watching, Massimo, enters her world directly (first in need of assistance for his sick dog and later in regard to a translation), her curiosity grows into outright compulsion. When Massimo suddenly moves to Rome, Valeria drops everything to follow.

Cast: Barbara Bobulova, Brigette Catillon, Andrea Renzi, Chiara Picchi.
2004. 102mins

Under the Same Moon / Sotto la luna di Scampia (18)

Dir: Carlo Luglio

The everyday life of two young gypsies who live in Scampia, a suburb of Naples, set in a Cammoristic background, where an ex-boss on the road to repentance confronts a rising young boss and his group from the winning rival clan. The ways of life inside the gypsy camp and out, have a small common denominator: stories of people living on the outside, with the same inner desperation but vital strength typical of those who are forced to make ends meet, confronting the hard street life, by each day trampling on their own dignity, in order to survive. Moving on, however, is inevitable, in the search of a better life.

Cast: Franco Melone, Oliver Andelkovic, Samantha Andelkovic, Pavel Nenadosky, Nino Smajovic, Salvatore Ruocco, Giuliana Corona, Ketty Adams, Giulia Napoli, Gaetano Di Vaio, Francesco Di Leva.
2005. 92mins