01/09/2020
The journey begins
Giornate degli Autori sets sail on a red-letter day for film, when the Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest, in a highly symbolic gesture turns the projectors back on at a time when audiences need to believe in culture, storytelling and the magic of numbers. This 17th edition of Giornate lines up 26 countries in 29 films, 5 of which are directorial debuts, 3 second films, and others dazzling new works by established filmmakers.
For its opening night, Giornate is placing its bets on a first film:
Honey Cigar by Franco-Algerian filmmaker
Kamir Aïnouz. The journey begins in Parisian interiors and winds up in Algeria as the film explores adolescence and the transition to adulthood, from naivety to desire, from the safety of one's own family to sparks of rebellion in the name of women's freedom.
Zoé Adjani - rising talent and niece of Isabella Adjani - stars in this wide-ranging portrait of the emigrant bourgeoisie in which two worlds face off (modern-day France and Berber-Algerian traditions). Amira Casar also accompanies the film to Giornate for its debut, once again in the role of a mother (as she was in the 2017 hit Call Me by Your Name). This time she plays a mother torn between respecting centuries-old rules and heeding her own sense of justice.
"I like to think," says Gaia Furrer, Giornate's Artistic Director, "that the personal story of a first-time filmmaker, about her Algerian roots as seen through the social dynamics at work in the life of a young girl struggling with adolescence, is actually a universal story, about all of us when we are unsure, yet take on new challenges, even in troubled times like our own, and dive into the waters of life."
Honey Cigar explores the theme of adolescence just like two other films in competition:
Oasis by
Ivan Ikić, which looks at young love in an institution for people with mental disabilities; and
The Whaler Boy by
Philipp Yuryev, which is set in a remote village on the Bering Strait, home to a teenage whale hunter who is initiated into the world of erotic love and sexual attraction to women, all thanks to a spotty Internet connection.
"Courage is the underlying theme of this year's Giornate," declares General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti. "We were inspired by our filmmakers, who generously offered us stories and films that make us proud. Yet courage is also in some way the symbol of the Venice Film Festival in 2020 as it celebrates the vitality of film as an art form that defies the fears and overcomes the hurdles of a crisis which affects one and all. We are grateful to the Biennale and Venice for their courageous decision to hold the event, and we will be enthusiastically working to achieve the same goal: to live without fear once again, thanks to art and its creators."
