09/02/2012

The third film by Davide Manuli (Girotondo, giro attorno al mondo and Beket), The Legend of Kaspar Hauser, heads the line-up of titles that the independent Italian company Intramovies is taking to the Berlinale European Film Market.

The film, selected in the Spectrum section of the recently concluded 41st Rotterdam Film Festival, revisits the mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, the boy who appeared from nowhere in Germany in 1828, which had already attracted Werner Herzog in1974 (The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Jury’s Special Prize at Cannes). Starring Silvia Calderoni (in the vests of an androgynous Kaspar Hauser) and Vincent Gallo (in two roles, the pusher and the sheriff) – is a postmodern western in black and white shot in Sardinia. The cast also includes Fabrizio Gifuni and Claudia Gerini.

Produced by Bruno Tibbioli and Alessandro Bonifazi for Blue Film and Shooting Hope Productions, with the contribution of MiBac and Regione Sardegna, the film will be in Italian cinemas with Iris Film.

Paola Corvino’s international distribution company also brings to the Italian Pavilion of the Martin Gropius Bau Seven Acts of Mercy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by brothers Gianluca and Massimo De Serio, a "spiritual thriller" (see the article) which has collected a long series of awards: from the Young People’s Jury Prize and the Don Quijote Award at the Locarno Film Festival, to the Grand Prix at the Annecy Film Festival.

Roan Johnson’s The First on theList (see the article), meanwhile, is a fun and intelligent comedy, screened as a special event at the latest Rome International Film Festival, where it won a LARA Award - Special Mention for the young leading actor Francesco Turbanti. The cast of this film, produced by Palomar and Urania Pictures together with Rai Cinema, also includes Santamaria, in the vests of a singer-songwriter and a militant in the 70s student movement who, at the news of an imminent State coup, decides to escape abroad.

Intramovies’ line-up also includes Rough Hands (Ayadin Khachina) by Moroccan director Mohamed Asli (A Casablanca les anges ne volent pas), who is also co-producer with Dagham Film. The film stars Mustapha (Mohamed Bastaoui), a fifty-year old barber from Casablanca whose clients are high-ranking retired civil servants.

(Translated from Italian)