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RELEASES Italy

Papaleo a former “fan of God” in Una piccola impresa meridionale

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- Director of Basilicata coast to coast’s second feature film stars a priest who has hung up his habit, Scamarcio, Bobulova and Felberbaum. In cinemas on October 17 with Warner

Papaleo a former “fan of God” in Una piccola impresa meridionale

In Basilicata coast to coast [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rocco Papaleo
film profile
]
, he had singer Max Gazzè appear. In his second film as a director, Una piccola impresa meridionale [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, he now has actor Riccardo Scamarcio do the singing. There is always much music in Rocco Papaleo’s films. “When I write, I start with a piece of music,” the Lucania filmmaker says. “In this case, I started with one of my songs called 'La mia parte imperfetta' [my imperfect part], from which we found a starting point to find entertainment, also drawing from my own life, as well as that of those around me.”

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Una piccola impresa meridionale is another story from the south, where nature’s beauty and refined notes are mixed in with dialects, prejudices and personal misadventures, telling once more the journey of a varied group of people towards the (re)discovery of themselves. A priest who has hung up his habit (Rocco Papaleo) calling himself an “ex fan of God”, his cheated brother-in-law (Riccardo Scamarcio – in the photo with Papaleo), a retired sex worker (Barbora Bobulova), a lesbian couple (Sarah Felberbaum e Claudia Potenza), an extravagant repair company (Giovanni Esposito, Giampiero Schiano and little Mela Esposito) and a mother overwhelmed by scandal (Giuliana Lojodice), all find themselves in an old, abandoned lighthouse, each fleeing their own sins. Confronted with all of their differences, they will end up taking part in a great enterprise: that of doing the lighthouse up, and transforming it into a hotel. As the building is mended, the characters find themselves mending too.

The film deals, among others, with the theme of homosexuality, including in the drama a politically correct undertone and a good-natured type of comedy which might not have been what one would have expected from Papaleo. “One of the first images that came to mind when I thought of the film was a wedding with two wedding dresses. Maybe this is what brought me to be a little rhetorical,” the director, who wrote the screenplay together with Valter Lupo admits. “But the intent was to force strong reactions from the public at large: I think of my mother and people from my own town when they will see it.”

With this second directing venture, the creator of Basilicata coast to coast (read the review - David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento 2010 for best newcomer director and best music) has confirmed his poetic, melancholic vein, his extreme comedy and his strong sense of nature aesthetic (the film, set in an undefined village in the south of Italy, was filmed in Oristano, one of “Sardinia’s less contaminated” areas), valorised by Fabio Zamarion’s photography (David di Donatello 2007 for his photography in The Unknown by Giuseppe Tornatore). The film is lacking in bite however, as well as in rhythm and humour. Among the screenplay’s highlights is when the builder-stuntman Gennaro, stage name Jennifer, launches into a performance when you least expect it, to everyone’s astonishment.

Produced by Paco Cinematografica and distributed by Warner (a winning combination as seen with The Best Offer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Tornatore), Una piccola impresa meridionale will be coming out in 400 Italian cinemas on October 17.

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(Translated from Italian)

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