original title:
Lubo
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
Giorgio Diritti, Fredo Valla, from the novel “Il Seminatore” by Mario Cavatore
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
Indiana Production, Aranciafilm, Hugofilm Features, Proxima Milano, Rai Cinema, supported by Ministero della Cultura, RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera SRG/SSR, with the support of Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Zürcher Filmstiftung, Regione Lazio, IDM Film Commission Südtirol, Film Commission Torino Piemonte, Trentino Film Commission
distribution:
01 Distribution [Italy], Stars Media [Albania], Palace Films [Australia], Stars Media [Bosnia and Herzegovina], Imovision [Brazil], Beta Film [Bulgaria], Shadow Distribution [Canada], Stars Media [Croatia], FilmoTV [France], Cinobo [Greece], Palace Films [New Zealand], Stars Media [North Macedonia], Outsider Films [Portugal], Stars Media [Serbia], Stars Media [Slovenia], Filmin [Spain], Swallow Wings Films [Taiwan], Shadow Distribution [United States]
world sales:
country:
Italy/Switzerland
year:
2023
film run:
180'
format:
colour
release date:
09/11/2023
festivals & awards:
Lubo is a nomad, a busker who in 1939 is called up to the Swiss army to defend the country’s borders against the risk of a German invasion. Shortly afterward he finds out that his wife has died in the attempt to stop the gendarmes from taking away their three small children, who, as Yenisch, have been removed from their family as part of the national program of reeducation for “children of the road” (Hilfswerk für die Kinder der Landstrasse). Lubo knows that he will never have peace until he gets his children back and gets justice for his story and that of all outsiders like himself.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
Reading Mario Cavatore’s novel Il seminatore revealed to me the little-known story of something that went on in Switzerland for a period of fifty years, leading me to reflect on the sense of justice, on institutions, on what it means to bring up children and love them. Out of this came the film Lubo, in which the unfolding of events shows how senseless principles and discriminatory laws engender an evil that spreads like wildfire over time, penetrating into people’s lives and altering their course and their values, generating suffering, anger, violence, ambiguity... but also a love for life and for one’s children that is determined to overcome everything and bring justice.