original title:
La prima luce
directed by:
cast:
Riccardo Scamarcio, Daniela Ramirez, Luis Gnecco, Alejandro Goic, Gianni Pezzolla, Paulina Urrutia, Maria Eugenia Barrenechea
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
Maria Teresa Padula, Angela Torti
costume design:
Eva Palmisani, Carolina Norero
producer:
production:
Paco Cinematografica, Rai Cinema, supported by Ministero della Cultura, in association with Imprebanca, with the support of Regione Lazio, Apulia Film Commission
distribution:
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2015
film run:
108'
format:
colour
release date:
24/09/2015
festivals & awards:
Marco, a young cynical and ambitious lawyer, lives in Bari with his companion Martina and their 8 years old son, Mateo.
Martina is from South America and moved to Italy after meeting Marco.
Our story begins when their relationship is almost over.
Martina yearns for going back to her country with Mateo but Marco disagrees with her choice as he is not willing to lose the deep bond with his son.
After several tearing moments, Martina decides to run away with Mateo and they will vanish without trace.
Time begins to flow slower and slower for Marco. He doesn’t know anything about his son and, driven by distress and confusion, decides to go look for him.
Once in South America, Marco ends up in an incomprehensible metropolis of 6 million of indifferent people.
After an interminable and vain searching, Martina and Mateo really seem to have disappeared into thin air, but...
The First Light tells how heartrending separation can be and how the strength of fatherly love can overcome all boundaries.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
The idea for this film springs from the sum total of many things: my constant observation of reality, a desire to depict social transformations that are underway, and then the growing urgency of this story of children torn between two parents: the children of globalization. It's a universal story in the end, above and beyond the two countries chosen here.