UN BRINDISI GEORGIANO

During the shooting of the film Il dono, Giuliano Fratini meets Marlen Khutsiev, who agrees to talk about Tarkovsky. However, before he is asked any questions, as a sign of thanks to the Italian guests, he wants to talk about Italy and in particular about Fellini and their friendship established at the 1963 Moscow Film Festival. His eyes light up as he thinks back to his youthful years, when in Moscow the Italian master asked to meet him, that little Georgian who had problems with the regime's censorship. This short film is a tribute to the Italian genius on the centenary of his birth and to the Georgian master, who died a few months ago.

"At the beginning of the celebrations of the centenary of Fellini's birth, I remembered I had this material whose importance I had not initially understood. Perhaps noticing my emotion, as great masters do, at the beginning of our interview, before I asked him any questions, Marlen started talking about Fellini. In the film you will notice our surprise and the absence of a script, everything takes place as a pleasant conversation. During the months of the lockdown, with a great deal of effort I collected as many photographs as I could of their first meeting at the 1963 Moscow Film Festival. These materials flowed into the film when the Russian archives reopened. The film was selected at the Moscow Film Festival, an extraordinary event for anyone who knows all the humiliations that Marlen had to suffer in the last years of his life due to the new course of Russian cinema."

DIRECTOR, PRODUCER: Giuliano Fratini. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Aleksej Gorbatov. FILM EDITING: Luciano Vittori. PRODUCTION:Infinitas Film.

CONTACTS: Infinitas Film, Giuliano Fratini giulianofratini@infinitasfilm.it