01/12/2021 - The latest edition of the festival combining literature and film noir will unfold 10 – 15 December boasting some brilliant European titles and the Manetti Bros.’ long-awaited Diabolik

The latest instalment of the Noir In Festival is set to unspool in Milan, in person, from 10 to 15 December, following last year’s online edition. “This 31st edition is wholly focused on the future, albeit mindful of tradition, and it comes together to form a heady mix which has always been the distinguishing feature of this one-of-a-kind festival on the international film scene”, stresses Giorgio Gosetti, the event’s artistic director alongside Marina Fabbri and Gianni Canova (of the University of Milan).

Bringing together fiction and film noir, the festival will deliver the Raymond Chandler Award to an internationally acclaimed author along the lines of Guillaume Musso and will highlight the great revival of the “polar” genre in France, buoyed by impressive guests such as Hervé Le Corre and Franck Thilliez. There’ll be no shortage of recognised champions of the Italian giallo and noir forms either, from doyen Loriano Macchiavelli to Carlo Lucarelli, not to mention Donato Carrisi, Maurizio De Giovanni and Simona Vinci.

More so than ever before, film noir and noir fiction come to form a single body in this year’s programme. Such is the case for Massimo Donati who is making his debut as a director, in competition, with Diario di spezie [+see also:
interview: Massimo Donati
film profile], which is based on his novel, and for Donato Carrisi (Into the Labyrinth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) who is presenting his new book while shooting on his upcoming film, Io sono l’abisso, is underway. Three other authors play on the link between books and films: Denis Dercourt (The Teacher [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) used Peter May’s book The Killing Room as the basis for his title Vanishing (France/South Korea/Belgium), which is screening in competition, while Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
film profile] (UK/France/Belgium) draws on Brian Catling’s noir novel of the same name to craft a captivating and cryptic film which has already scooped this year’s Special Jury Prize in San Sebastián. Fabrice Du Weltz signs his name to a dark and breath-taking thriller in the form of Inexorable [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice Du Welz
film profile] (Belgium/France), which sees a writer (Benoît Poelvoorde), who’s looking to produce a follow-up to his bestseller and desperately in need of inspiration, moving with his family to their countryside villa.

Likewise on the bill is Eskil Vogt’s troubling title The Innocents [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eskil Vogt
film profile] (Norway/Sweden/Denmark/UK), which was selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section this year, and Canada’s Les oiseaux ivres by Ivan Grbovic, which is his country’s candidate for the Oscars. Another unmissable movie is Locarno’s 2021 Golden Leopard winner Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Indonesia/Singapore/Germany), which is directed by Edwin and will screen out of competition, and this year’s British revelation, young Prano Bailey-Bond, and his debut work Censor [+see also:
film review
interview: Prano Bailey-Bond
film profile], which was selected for Sundance and for the Berlinale’s Panorama line-up. Also screening out of competition is the entertaining title Nimby – Not In My Back Yard [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Finland’s Teemu Nikki, alongside Vesuvio by Giovanni Troilo - homing in on the volcano which dominates and menaces the metropolis of Naples - and the Manetti Bros.’ long-awaited Diabolik [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], based on the very dark comic strip created by Angela and Luciana Giussani.

(Translated from Italian)