Country: Italy
Year: 2023
Duration: 89'
In a timeless countryside cottage lives an extremely religious family, the kind of Christian family that strictly follows the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The three daughters have never left the property, driven by respect, duty, and under the authority of a domineering father and a dogmatic grandmother. They live modestly: the garden and fields provide enough for the family to sustain themselves and trade minimally during the local market. The father, Armando, has accustomed them all to not ask for more than is due. Religious and social education is entrusted to Grandmother Paolina. The communal moment of Confession is perhaps the most important activity of the day: it concludes and retains the aspects for which to seek penance. The three sisters, in fact, are compelled to reveal every hidden action and thought. Meanwhile, just a few days ago, another of Paolina’s nephews, Primo, mysteriously arrived at the cottage…
Biography
film director
Andrea Baroni
(Rome, 1983) after a religious education and studies in Medicine and Surgery, he lived for years between London, Paris, and Madrid, where he began to experiment as an author and director. Early short films and small documentaries followed his interest in social storytelling, particularly that connected to minorities and the intimacy of family units. Following a period as an author at the Videa Station factory, he directed the short films: Quando a Roma nevica (2016), Ciao Bianca (2017) and 9 su 10 (2019), selected and winners in numerous national and international festivals. Quando a Roma nevica and later 9 su 10 had their premieres at the Cineteca of the Cinema in Bologna as part of the Visioni Italiane Festival. In 2023, he wrote and directed the feature film Amen.
FILMOGRAFIA
Quando a Roma nevica (cm, 2016), Ciao Bianca (cm, 2017), 9 su 10 (cm, 2019), Amen (2023).
Declaration
film director
“Amen originates from the circumstance that, in the period following confinement and shared limitation, I discovered a place (the filming cottage) that represented, for me, both the memory of happiness and that of prohibitions. In the days following that discovery, I couldn’t help but continuously return to that feeling. It took me just under two weeks to write a screenplay that didn’t exist, and had never existed in the form of an outline. Exactly 28 days after seeing the cottage, I was on set and beginning to shoot as if we were in a commune, with a group of friends who wanted to experiment with the concept of boundaries. All in all, it was 45 days in a state of limbo, as if life could hesitate and indeed, had paused to await my move.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Andrea Baroni. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Niccolò Palomba. EDITING: Federico Palmerini, Giuliana Sarli. PRODUCTION DEISGN: Roberta Montemale. COSTUME DESIGN: Marija Tosic. MUSIC: Diego Buongiorno. SOUND: Salvatore Tagliavia. CAST: Grace Ambrose, Francesca Carrain, Luigi Di Fiore, Paola Sambo, Valentina Filippeschi, Simone Guarany, Silvia D’Amico. PRODUCERS: Francesca Chiofalo, Beatrice Kildani, Amalia Morrone. PRODUCTION: TNM Produzioni.
CONTACT: Fandango
