Everything is ready for the 40th edition of the Moscow International Festival, set to begin tomorrow. Let’s find out which Italian films will be competing.
The Moscow International Film Festival will be held this year from April 19 to 26, 2018: the usual appointment of the month of June has been anticipated by two months so as not to overlap the 2018 World Cup. The Festival will start with the screening of Ferzan Ozpeteck’s Napoli Velata, selected as the opening film of the 40th edition and which will also be in competition. The other Italians participating in the race will be Roberta Torre in the Film Section with Riccardo va all’inferno, and Giuseppe Carrieri with Hanaa in the Documentary Section.
The Italian presence will have an undeniable importance in Moscow: among other guests in the Festival, we will also find Matteo Botrugno and Daniele Coluccini with Il contagio, taken from the homonymous novel by Walter Siti, Francesca Archibugi with Gli sdraiati, taken from the book by Michele Serra and Paolo Virzì with The Leisure Seeker. The managing director of Rai Cinema, Paolo Del Brocco, will complete the Italian delegation as a member of the International Jury. Finally, among the films in competition there will also be Babak Jalali’s Land, a co-production between Italy, Mexico, France and the Netherlands, presented in the NCN 2012.
Moreover, a few days after the death of Vittorio Taviani, the tribute that had already been announced by the Taviani brothers has acquired an even more important value. In fact, the film St. Michael Had a Rooster, taken from a Tolstoy’s story, and Rainbow: A Private Affair, from the novel of the same name by Beppe Fenoglio, will also be screened.
The head of the Italian section of the Moscow Film Festival, Peter Shepotinnik, has also commented on the strong Italian presence in Moscow: “Italian cinema has always been a guest of honor at the Moscow Film Festival. The great Federico Fellini has been awarded twice, Luchino Visconti has been part of the Jury; and also Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pietro Germi, Damiano Damiani, and the Taviani brothers have presented their masterpieces to the Russian public since the 60s. Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the other hand, suffered the censorship until Perestroika. Even contemporary authors rely on an audience of admirers in Moscow, so we are happy with the return of accomplished masters like Ferzan Ozpetek and Roberta Torre, and young promises like Matteo Botrugno, Daniele Coluccini, and Giuseppe Carrieri.”
