Pesci combattenti
Fighting Fish - Pesci combattenti
Italy 2002 (35mm, 75', )
In Barra, a suburb to the east of Naples, a group of middle-school teachers are participating in the ministerial project Chance, that focuses on young people who have fallen by the scholastic wayside, students who haven't finished their compulsory education. These young people have dropped out of school, they have been kicked out or they have flunked out. Chance isn't a school like all the others: there are no class tests, no oral exams, no bells, and especially, no grades.
"We didn't want to dramatize reality, nor did we want to make it seem more pitiful, we only wanted to bear witness: these young people, despite their great hardships and misfortune, live their daily lives with unconscious courage and great irony" (A. D'Ambrosio, D. Di Biasio).
Regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura: Andrea D'Ambrosio, Daniele Di Biasio.
Director of photography: Luca Alzani.
Sound: Max Gobbiet.
Editor: Giulio Testa.
Cast: Giovanni Penza, Simona Noverino, Francesco Lanza, Vincenzino Santoro, Luigi Mauro, Gemma D'Ambrosio, Lello Conte, Antonio Di Masi, Maria Coppola, Salvatore Ascione, Francesco D'Angelo, Rosaria Corvo, Benito Ascione, Mariarca Notturno (i ragazzi), Fiorella Picecchi, Anna La Rocca, Rita Iannazzone, Annamaria Torre (gli insegnanti).
Production company: Andrea Occhipinti per Eyescreen, via Chinotto 16, 00195 Roma, Italia, tel. +39-06-37352296; Nicola Giuliano e Francesca Cima per Indigo Film, corso Europa 72, 80126 Napoli, Italia, tel. +39-081-412875, e-mail indigo.film@tiscali.it; Gianluca Arcopinto per Pablo, via Della Robbia 22, 00153 Roma, Italia, tel. +39-06-5745004.
Andrea D'Ambrosio
(Roccadaspide, Salerno, Italy, 1975) studied at Rome’s Nuova Università del Cinema e della Televisione and got his degree in directing. His short film Ecce Nanni (1998) won the Nastro d’argento and Pesci combattenti (2002) won other prizes. He has also worked as assistant director for Franco Zeffirelli for Storia di una capinera (1993).
FILMOGRAPHY
(Updated to the last partecipation to TFF)
Andrea D’Ambrosio:
Ecce Nanni (cm, doc., 1998), Attori di vita (doc., 1999), Gli anni nel cassetto (doc., 1999), Nel paese di temporali e di primule (doc., 2000), Come una nuvola che danza (doc., 2001), Pesci combattenti (doc., 2002), Checosamanca (doc. collettivo/collective doc., 2006).
Esmeralda Calabria, Andrea D’Ambrosio:
Biùtiful cauntri (doc., 2007).
Daniele Di Biasio
Daniele Di Biasio was born in Formia (Latina) in 1972. He graduated with a degree in Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature from the university La Sapienza in Rome, and received a diploma from the Tesco course (techniques of writing and communication¿ directed by Luca Serianni, and a diploma from the screenwriting course held by Ugo Pirro at the zines "America Oggi", "Avvenimenti", "Sipario", "I Limoni" and the web site www.celluloide.it.
FILMOGRAPHY
(Updated to the last partecipation to TFF)
Codici (cm, 1999), Il Parco regionale suburbano di Gianola e Monte di Scauri (doc., 2000),
