2 minute read
To Chiara
A CHIARA
From multi award-winning writer/director Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra, Meditteranea), To Chiara is a poignant drama about a teenage girl who learns some difficult truths about her close-knit family.
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Gioia Tuara, Southern Italy. The Guerrasio family and their friends gather to celebrate the 18th birthday of Guilia, the eldest daughter of Claudio and Carmela. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara (extraordinary screen discovery Swamy Rotolo) - who’s clearly Dad’s favourite - though it’s a happy occasion. But Chiara gradually senses that something is very wrong, and then… her father disappears.
Chaira’s mother exudes reassurances to her three daughters but offers no clear explanation, so the teenager begins her own investigations. The more Chiara learns, the more she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
DRAMA | ITALY, FRANCE 2021 | 121 MIN | M
Italian with English subtitles
CAST
Swamy Rotolo, Claudio Rotolo, Carmela Fumo, Grecia Rotolo
WINNER Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2021 Best European Film
OFFICIAL SELECTION Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2021 (Horizons)
OFFICIAL SELECTION New York Film Festival 2021
Ingeniously structured and building to a thrilling climax, Carpignano’s neo-realist tale upends the mafia genre with an emotional and urgent new perspective.
Not screening IFF Perth. Screens in WA as part of the Perth Festival 2022
DIRECTOR: JONAS CARPIGNANO
Born in 1984, Jonas Carpignano grew up between Rome and New York. As a graduate student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he began directing short films that would later bring him widespread critical acclaim. His first feature film Mediterranea debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015, and his second feature A Ciambra premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival - Director's Fortnight where it won the Europa Cinema Label prize for Best European film.
Italy has a great tradition of quality cinema, it is the country that has won the most Oscars for the "best foreign-language film" category. Its contemporary film production is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as an integral part of the promotion of the brand "Made in Italy" all over the world.
I am therefore happy to support the ST. ALi Italian Film Festival, the largest Italian film festival in the world apart from Italy, especially the section "The Female Lens", because Cinema needs a more feminine gaze not only in the direction but also in the script, in the scenography, in the editing, so as to generate a real change of sensibility. The road is still uphill but compared to when we only talked about Liliana Cavani and Lina Wertmuller, the women of Italian cinema are now many and loved and, above all, they are very young.
PRESENTED BY THE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA MELBOURNE
