The Italian Embassy in Berlin celebrated the participation of Italian cinema in the 72nd International Film Festival by hosting an event with film directors, actors, producers and technical experts.
“I am very happy that in Berlin we are represented by a recognized master like Paolo Taviani and by several young film directors, a combination of the wealth of Italian cinema over time,” said the Italian Ambassador, Armando Varricchio. Paolo Taviani is competing in the Berlinale with “Leonora Addio”, his first film directed without his brother Vittorio, who died four years ago. The film stems from an event concerning Pirandello and tells the story of a trip across Italy after World War II, incorporating archive footage and fragments of neorealist films.
This year’s Berlin International Film Festival will also see the participation, in different sections, of Francesco Costabile, Nicolò Bassetti and Lorenzo Tardella, respectively the directors of “Una femmina”, “Nel mio nome” (“Into my Name”) and “Le variabili dipendenti”.
Ambassador Varricchio specifically recalled how, in his recent swearing-in speech, President Mattarella stressed that “culture is not superfluous: it is a constitutive element of the Italian identity”, calling on the Parliament to act in such a way that “this heritage of ingeniousness and achievements, to be preserved and supported, increasingly become a resource capable of generating knowledge, moral growth and a factor of economic development.”
The Embassy’s event was attended, among others, by Mariette Rissenbeek, executive director of the Berlinale; Manlio Messina, Sicily’s Regional Councillor for Sport Tourism and Entertainment; Carla Cattani from Cinecittà and Roberto Stabile, head of international relations at ANICA.
