18/02/2003 - Russian audiences realy adore Italian cinema and our exporters sold five major films, old and new, from Fellini to Bellocchio

Berlinale 2003 - Italia
Record sales to Russia
Russians are mad for Italian cinema. Or rather, if they weren’t up to now, there’s a very good chance that they soon will be. Italian film exporters did some excellent business at the last European Film Market that ran concurrently to the 53rd Berlinale. Especially with distributors from the former Russian Federation. Intramovies will release Matteo Garrone’s The Embalmer in Russia while Buskin Film sold Russia the following four titles: Vipera by Sergio Citti, Tutta la conoscenza del mondo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Eros Puglielli, Voci by Franco Giraldi and Non sono io by Gabriele Iacovone (this is Iacovone’s first theatrical release).

Rai Trade sold the TV and home video rights to a package of 20 archive titles, including films by Federico Fellini, Marco Bellocchio and the Taviani brothers.

Commenting on the Italian film industry’s discovery of the dynamic Russian audiovisual market, a spokesperson for Italia Cinema said: “This is perfectly in line with what Ministers Urbani and Marzano (respectively Culture and Production - editor’s note) had in mind when they pointed to Russia as one of the Italian film industry’s priority targets for 2003, in collaboration with the Foreign Trade Institute – ICE, taking advantage of the opportunity of the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Saint Petersburg this year. "

(Translated from Italian)