In Italy there is a very particular area: it's the
flat zone in Emilia until the delta of the river Po, a place more or less close
to the 45th parallel, half way between North Pole and the Equator. In
this halfway land, suspended between ghosts of the past and surreal
hypo-modernity, there are many paths and routes of research. The route of the
crew follows a double hint: the research of Sondolo, a small village in the
province of Ferrara, where Gianni Celati's mother came from, and a journey made
in the beginning of the century by the woman's family in order to move to
Portomaggiore in Ferrara.
"Of course, we don't want to show anything with
this pilgrimage. The words of Gianni Celati and my images can also communicate
ideas: but, above all, it's the fact of traveling through a world that counts,
looking around and finding the time to meditate on our landscape always halfway
to something, like an existential 45th parallel we can never get to see the end"
(D. Ferrario).
Biography
film director
Davide Ferrario
(Casalmaggiore, Cremona, Italy, 1956) graduated in Anglo-American literature. In the beginning of the 1980s he works with different cinema magazines and organizes film festivals and events. He is the author of many essays on cinema, of novels and several screenplays. He has directed short films and documentaries, and, among the long feature films, we would like to mention La fine della notte, Tutti giù per terra, based on the novel by Giuseppe Culicchia, and Guardami, screened in Venice in 1999. His novel Fade to Black, with fiction figure of Orson Welles, has been translated in many languages and in 2006 became an Oliver Parker’s film production of the same title. He partecipated at the Torino Film Festival with several titles, among which Materiale resistente (1995), codirected with Guido Chiesa, Sexx (2016), and Cento anni (2017). In 2020 he presented at the Festival the documentary feature Nuovo cinema paralitico (2020), and the following year the feature Just Noise.
FILMOGRAFIA
Non date da mangiare agli animali (cm, 1987), La fine della notte (1989), Lontano da Roma (doc, 1991), Anime fiammeggianti (1994), A Rimini (cm, 1995), Il figlio di Zelig (cm, 1995), Materiale resistente (co-regia Guido Chiesa, doc, 1995), Confidential Report (doc, 1996), Estate in città (cm, 1996), Partigiani (doc, 1997), Tutti giù per terra (1997), Figli di Annibale (1998), Sul quarantacinquesimo parallelo (doc, 1998), Guardami (1999), Comunisti (doc, 1999), Linea di confine (doc, 2000), La rabbia (doc, 2000), Le strade di Genova (doc, 2001), Fine amore: mai (doc, 2002), I Tigi a Gibellina (doc, 2002), Mondonuovo (doc, 2003), Dopo mezzanotte (2003), Se devo essere sincera (2004), La strada di Levi (doc, 2006), Tutta colpa di Giuda (2009), Piazza Garibaldi (doc, 2012), La luna su Torino (2014), La zuppa del demonio (doc, 2014), Accademia Carrara: il museo riscoperto (doc, 2015), Sexxx (doc., 2016), Cento anni (doc., 2017), Nuovo cinema paralitico (docufilm, 2020), Blood on the Crown (2021), Boys (2021), Umberto Eco - La biblioteca del mondo (doc, 2022).
Cast
& Credits
Montaggio/Film editor: Stefano Barnaba
Musica/Music: Giorgio Canali
Interpreti/Cast: Gianni Celati
Produttore/Producer: Francesco Conversano, Nene Grignaffini
Produzione/Production: Movie Movie
Co-produzione/Co-production: Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna/Regione Emilia Romagna/Provincia di Bologna/RAI Educational
Distribuzione/Distribution: Movie Movie/RAI Educational