09/12/2015 - On 12 December the debut film by Fernando Muraca will be presented with the audience award in Berlin after being screened in 35 cinemas of 33 towns as part of travelling festival Cinema! Italia! 2015

On 12 December Lands of Saints [+see also:
trailer
film profile] will be awarded the audience award of the 2015 edition of travelling festival Cinema! Italia! in Berlin. The debut film on the ‘ndrangheta by Fernando Muraca came out on top after a tour lasting three months that took the film, between September and December, to 35 cinemas in 33 German towns. The award ceremony will take place at the Babylon cinema, with the director in attendance. 

Also competing for the prize, which is sponsored by the Italian Embassy in Berlin and supported by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, was Buoni a nulla [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Gianni Di Gregorio, Che strano chiamarsi Federico! [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Ettore Scola, The Dinner [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivano De Matteo
film profile] by Ivano De Matteo, I Can Quit Whenever I Want [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sydney Sibilia
film profile] by Sydney Sibilia and Greenery Will Bloom Again [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Ermanno Olmi. Subtitled in German, the films were judged by the audiences of the 35 cinemas involved in the initiative.

Produced by Kinesis Film and Dm Communication, with the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and the support of the Apulia Film Commission Foundation, Lands of Saints is based on the novel “Il cielo a metà” the book with which Monica Zapelli, the screenwriter of One Hundred Steps, made her first foray into the world of literature. It’s a story about the 'ndrangheta, like Black Souls [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Francesco Munzi
film profile], but with women. The film centres on Vittoria (Valeria Solarino), who has left the North to pursue a career as a magistrate in Lamezia Terme in Calabria and fight organised crime. Assunta (Daniela Marra) is a young widow whose husband was killed by the 'ndrangheta and is forced to marry her brother-in-law, an 'ndrangheta member. Big sister Caterina (Lorenza Indovina) runs the family business whilst her mafia boss husband (Tommaso Ragno) lies low. 

Released in Italy last March, the film has been screened at a number of festivals: the Annecy Italian Film Festival (where it won the Special Fiction Jury Prize); Cinema Italy – the Miami/Atlanta/San Juan Italian Film Festival; the Stockholm Italian Film Festival; the Montreal World Film Festival; the Villerupt Italian Film Festival; the Italian Cinema Meetings in Toulouse (where it won the Critics’ Award); and the Shanghai International Film Festival.

(Translated from Italian)