Voices in the Dark flies to Shanghai
- Rodolfo Bisatti’s film starring a blind teenager has already taken part in the SEEFEST in Los Angeles and the Murcia Festival in Spain, where it received an honourable mention
What a long journey for such a small film. After taking part in the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles this May and receiving an honourable mention from the jury (presided over by Abbas Kiarostami) at the Murcia Festival in Spain, Voices in the Dark by Rodolfo Bisatti is now flying to Shanghai where it has been selected by the SIFF – the Shanghai International Film Festival which will take place this June 15-23.
The Padua-born director’s fourth feature film is a brave experiment which turned out well. The film stars a teenager who has been blind since he was a boy and has been conceived to be able to be enjoyed by blind audiences too. Thanks to exceptional sound work, there is no need for any extra gadgets or help.
“This is a silent film, not narrated, with complex, epic and lyrical editing,” Bisatti explained, adding, “a film which doesn’t play by commercial cinema, auteur cinema, categories or genre rules.”
The story is of a family who lives prisoner in a poor neighbourhood in the wind city of Trieste. Teenage son Giovanni (Giuseppe Cocevari) has not been able to see for the last four years. This tragedy has defeated his father who has abandoned his position at the prestigious university and reduced his existence to a minimum. Mother lives for Giovanni and finds her husband’s reaction difficult to deal with. An unhappy family lucky enough to have to face another life changing event which is so surreal and terrible they are forced to react.
The film provokes the same kind of reaction with its public. “Every screening creates a temporary community, the public creates their own sensorial and sentimental film because it is an open work of art,” the director explained. For this reason, Bisatti has created a laboratory called V.A.M. (Video Alfabetizzazione Multisensoriale or multi-sensorial alphabetisation video), sponsored by UNESCO, in which blind people are the masters, and directors the servants. To read more about this, click here.
Voices in the Dark is an Italian Slovenian coproduction with Kineofilm, Gianluca Arcopinto and Arkadena Film with contribution from the FVG audiovisual fund and the Slovenski Filmski Center. Pablo Film is the Italian distributor.
(Translated from Italian)
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