The “8 ½ Italian Film Festival” starts today, Friday, in Loulé and will “offer quality and appealing Italian cinema” to the Algarve over three days. This is the sixth edition of the festival, but it will be the first time that the Algarve will benefit from an extension.
The first film to be screened at the Cine-Teatro Louletano will be the comedy “Una Famiglia Perfetta” (2012), by Paolo Genovese, which starts at 21 pm. Two more days of Italian cinema follow, with the offer covering short and feature films and various genres.
As illustrated by the director of «8 ½» Stefano Savio in a conversation he had with Rádio Universitária do Algarve, this party seeks to promote the best cinema made in Italy. “Despite not being widely distributed nor seen much in the theater, it is still a cinema that has great appeal among people”, he considered.
For Stefano Savio, this is a film school with which the Portuguese feel a great connection. «One thing that I think our cinema has and that works very well in Portugal is that it speaks directly to the spectator. Unlike other European cinema, which is more about artist, about language, Italian cinema wants to empathize with the spectator and with the characters in the stories. It is a cinema that can become sympathetic, in the sense of appropriating history, something that the Portuguese public loves», he considered.
Giving strength to this festival is the «very strong Italian community» existing in Portugal, which also has many representatives in the Algarve. It was, moreover, the Honorary Consulate of Italy in the region that helped the organization to find a local institutional partner, the Câmara de Loulé, which provided a space for extension.
«Since the first edition we tried to come here to the Algarve. It has not been possible until now, it is not always easy to find support and institutions that can support events of this type. This year we were luckier», said the director of the Festa do Cinema Italiano. “I think the Festival is growing and has started to become more interesting for the different chambers, in this case Loulé”, he explained.
In terms of programming, after tonight's premiere, the party continues tomorrow, Saturday with the short films «Cargo» (2012), by Carlo Sironi, «Terra» (2012), by Piero Messina, «La Colpa» (2011) , by Francesco Prisco, “Training Auto Geno” (2011) by Astutillo Smeriglia, “Dell'Ammazzare il Maiale” (2011) by Simone Massi, and “Cusutu'n Coddu (Cucito Addosso)” (2012), by Giovanni la Parola, to be shown from 16:30 pm.
Also tomorrow, at 18 pm, the film «Bellas Mariposas» (30), by Salvatore Mereu, will be screened. At night, the public will have the opportunity to watch a joint production of Italy and Switzerland, the feature film «L'Intervallo» (2012), by Leonardo di Costanzo, «one of the most awarded Italian films internationally».
On Sunday and the party ends, the work «Io sono Li» (2012), by Andrea Segre, will be shown. This Franco-Italian production was the winner of the Lux Prize, in recognition given by the European Parliament to films considered to have social values for the integration of European communities.
The «8 1/2 Italian Film Festival» is an initiative of the association Il Sorpasso in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture and the Italian Embassy in Portugal, and will also pass through Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto, Funchal and Luanda. The Loulé extension of the festival has the support of the Municipality of Loulé and the Honorary Consulate of Italy in Faro.
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