Country: Italy
Year: 2008
Duration: 80'
Bari, 2008. A young Chinese teacher and pianist and her Italian “In this film, I met many children and one in particular, Leonardo,
companion await the birth of Leonardo. All around them, the reality of
the Chinese community: the musician, the family of shop owners, the
problems of residency permits, Chinese lessons at school. In the month
between the Italian New Year and the Chinese one, a portrait emerges
that overcomes clichés and offers possible ways to achieve integration.
the child of a mixed-race couple. Often, documentary makers deal with
the past, memory. But I made this film with the future always in mind.
Leonardo will grow up to become an adult whose identity is the result
of a mixture of races and I was moved by this condition of his;
he is a pioneer, off to conquer a different land. Bari, Puglia, Italy
today are a very static place. And yet Leonardo was born here and
this is more than just a hope: it is an act of conquest, an act of
strength. It is life’s most convincing answer, that allows for no reply
and that zeroes all discussion.”
Biography
film director
Paolo De Falco
Paolo De Falco (Novoli, Lecce, Italy, 1965) graduated in history of theater at the University la Sapienza of Rome. He studied dance, music and acting and over the course of his education he came into contact with Eduardo De Filippo, Leo de Berardinis, Peter Stein, Carmelo Bene and Tadeusz Kantor. He debuted as a film actor at the age of twenty in Il grande Blek (1987) by Giuseppe Piccioni. He directed his first short film in 2002, Il ponte, and in 2005 he directed his first feature length documentary, Stella loca, which was presented at the Roma Film Festival, at the Trieste Film Festival and at Doc for Sale in Amsterdam. During this same period he made a series of documentaries in Argentina, Chile and Brazil about Italian emigration during the post-war period. In 2008 presented at Torino Film Festival his documentary Leonardo.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia/filmography
Che cos’è un miracolo? (mm, 1995), Il ponte (cm, 2002), M’arrendo (cm, 2003), Stella loca (doc., 2006), Angelo della notte (cm, 2006), Radice e frontera (doc., 2006), Frontiera blanca (doc., 2007), Leonardo (doc., 2008), Via Appia (doc., 2010).
Cast
& Credits
regia, sceneggiatura, fotografia/director, screenplay, cinematography Paolo De Falco
montaggio/film editing Malgorzata Alicja Gudzikowska, Paolo De Falco
musica/music Jiang Lei, Wei Wei, Rèntíng Zhang
interpreti/cast Giuseppe Panaro, Rèntíng Zhang, Jiang Lei, Jiang Chunyan, Jiang Fumei, Francesco Venticaldi, Jiang Nuo, Lin Tingting, Wei Wei, Yi lì Chén, Anna Maria Guerriero
produttori/producers Fabio Parente, Paolo De Falco
produzione/production Film Grad, Teca del Mediterraneo
montaggio/film editing Malgorzata Alicja Gudzikowska, Paolo De Falco
musica/music Jiang Lei, Wei Wei, Rèntíng Zhang
interpreti/cast Giuseppe Panaro, Rèntíng Zhang, Jiang Lei, Jiang Chunyan, Jiang Fumei, Francesco Venticaldi, Jiang Nuo, Lin Tingting, Wei Wei, Yi lì Chén, Anna Maria Guerriero
produttori/producers Fabio Parente, Paolo De Falco
produzione/production Film Grad, Teca del Mediterraneo