IL PRIGIONIERO

by Federico Olivetti

Italy, 2019, 16′, color, DCP

Screenplay: Federico Olivetti

Tuesday 03 September 2019

11:30 Sala Perla Tickets, All Accreditations

cinematography
Nicola Cattani
editing
Desideria Rayner
sound
Mattia Biadene
[sound recordist]
Michele Braga
[sound designer]
production design
Caterina Da Vià

cast
Paolo Musio
[the prisoner]
Sabrina Impacciatore
[Maria]
Franco Ravera
[the policeman]
Emma Bertoli
[girl]
Carlo Piron
[child]
Mattia Pilon
[the thief]
Laura Serena
[the victim]
Cesare Lanna
[fascist]
Mario Pirrello
[fascist]
Nora Panizzo
[tenant]
Herbert Ruggaldier
[tenant]
Luisa Conti
[tenant]
Nino Olivetti
[tenant]

producer
Riccardo Biadene
production
Kama Productions
production coordinator
Silvia Jop

contact
Kama Productions

Press office
Silvia Gorgi

A nondescript, law-abiding individual - a real "gray man" - goes out one morning to buy fish at the market, but crosses paths with an excitable mob of people he doesn't know. They think he's a thief and chase him down the street, until he shakes them off by hiding in a basement. A nasty and none too bright cop finds him there, roughs him up and searches him. Once he realizes he's innocent, the cop leaves, after ordering him not to move from the spot till he returns. The nondescript former suspect obeys the policeman to the letter, and waits for days, hands up, not moving a muscle, for his Messiah to come back for him.

IL PRIGIONIERO

Filmography

2019 Il prigioniero (short)

2017 Verso casa (short)

2016 Sottoterra (short)

2015 L'ospite (short)

Federico Olivetti studied film at Ipotesi Cinema and New York University (Tisch School of the Arts). Alongside his numerous acting roles and directing stints for the stage, he has worked for theater greats such as Luca Ronconi, Peter Stein, and Bruce Myers, and has recently collaborated with Anatoly Vasiliev. As for the big screen, he has an acting credit in the film La parola amore esiste by Mimmo Calopresti, and served as assistant director to Calopresti, Marco Bellocchio, and Marco Tullio Giordana. Olivetti wrote and directed L'ospite (2015), Sottoterra (2016) and Verso casa (2017), three short films that have won awards at a number of festivals.

"Is obeying the law always the right thing to do? Isn't obedience itself a responsibility? What to do when a law is unfair? If you know that you can and must disobey, you also know that when you don't disobey it's a form of tacit consent. All of these questions went into this grotesque, paradoxical tale that examines the dehumanizing consequences of slavishly obeying authority. The way I tell the story, in fact, shows exactly how artificial the story is; even the acting departs from the naturalistic, psychological style. My main model is expressionism, with quite a bit of reworking of Fritz Lang's films." [Federico Olivetti]