Adventures Italian Style (second feature)

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Trailer

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Adventures Italian Style (Est)

Adventures Italian Style (Est)

original title:

Est

directed by:

cast:

Lodovico Guenzi, Matteo Gatta, Jacopo Costantini, Paolo Rossi Pisu, Ana Ciontea, Ioana Flora, Liviu Cheloiu, Ivano Marescotti, Sofia Longhini, Beatrice Balzani, Eva Issa Popovici, Iulieta Szomyi, Ada Condescu, Manuela Ciucur, Dana Voicu, Radu Romaniuc, Liviu Pintileasa, Ioan Peter, Virgili Aionei, Anca Florea

screenplay:

cinematography:

Adrian Silisteanu

set design:

Paola Zamagni, Iuliana Vilsan

costume design:

Luminita Mihai

country:

Italy

year:

2020

film run:

104'

format:

colour

release date:

05/02/2021

festivals & awards:

  • Ajaccio Italian Film Festival 2021: En compétition - Prix des Médiathèques
  • ICFF Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2021
  • Les rencontres du cinéma italien à Toulouse 2021: Compétition - Prix du Jury Étudiants, Mention Spéciale du Jury
  • Russia-Italia Film Festival RIFF 2021: Best Film
  • Villerupt Italian Film Festival 2021: Panorama
  • La Biennale di Venezia 2020: Giornate degli Autori - Notti Veneziane
  • Villerupt Italian Film Festival 2020: Sélection Officielle
  • DIFF Druk International Film Festival 2020: Critics' Choice Award
  • NYIFA - New York International Film Awards 2020: Best Original Story, Best Feature Film, Best Screen Play
  • Istanbul Film Awards 2020: Best Comedy Feature Film, Best Picture Feature Film, Best Director
  • Terra di Siena International Film Festival 2020: Best Picture Feature Film
  • CICFF Calcutta Imternational Cult Film Festival 2020: Best Feature Film
  • IFA Independent Film Awards London 2021: Best Drama
  • Fire Island Film Festival 2021: Best Narrative Film
  • Dimension Independent Film Festival Bali 2021: Best Narrative Film
  • South East European Film Festival Los Angeles 2021: Official Selection
  • Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston 2021: Official Selection
  • UNOFEX Swiss Film Awards 2021: Best Feature Film
  • SDMA San Diego Movie Awards 2021: Best Feature Film, Best Director Feature, Award of Excellence
  • Premio Sergio Amidei di Gorizia 2021: Premio Internazionale alla Miglior Sceneggiatura Cinematografica
  • Magna Graecia Film Festival 2021: Premio Migliore Sceneggiatura
  • Molise Cinema Film festival 2021: Migliore Lungometraggio
  • Pigeon International Film Festival Isafjorour 2021: Best Feature Film, Best Director Feature
  • Bollywood International Film Festival 2021: Best Film

1989: a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Pago, Rice and Bibi, three twenty-five-year-olds from Cesena, leave their quiet lives behind in search of adventure. A ten-day vacation in Eastern Europe means heading to places where the Soviet regime is still in place. Once in Budapest, they meet Emil, in flight from the dictatorship in his native Romania. The man is worried about his family back home and asks the trio for a favor: to take a suitcase to his wife and daughter. The journey is long, towns are deserted, restaurants have no food, and people will give you the shirt off their back out of hospitality. Finally the three Italians arrive in the capital. The moment they open the suitcase in front of Emil’s wife Andra, six-year-old daughter Adina, and grandma Costelia is highly emotional. Two months later, just before Christmas, the fall of Ceausescu is announced on television. By now, Pago, Rice and Bibi have returned to their normal lives in Italy.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
When I first read the story of Maurizio Paganelli, Andrea Riceputi and Enrico Boschi, I realized it was one that would resonate with audiences today. When an individualistic society gets to the point that it seems to have no time to lend a hand to a person in need, that’s when it’s time to stop, take a step back, and think things over. […] Like the rest of the world, Italy pretends it knows nothing about the Rumanian government today, or its past. Using the film medium, that history can be retraced in the eyes of three young Italians, and becomes universal: a metaphor for how little it takes to change one’s point of view. It’s a window on the ironic fact that what we take for granted every day is nothing more, for most of the world’s population, than a magnificent spread just glimpsed from the back row - on tiptoe.