A man and a woman. Not yet 30, Zakaria meets 55-year-old Giulia on the island of Lampedusa. The past and future, memories, the sea, the landscape – everything associatively merges in the precise black-and-white visual component created by an uncompromising director who asks fundamental questions about the meaning of existence.
A man and a woman. Zakaria, in his late 20s, fled Somalia, a land buffeted by Civil War, and now he’s a journalist living in Rome. Recently, 55-year-old Giulia was struggling with a personal crisis, and now she returns, carrying a life-threatening illness inside her body. The Mediterranean island of Lampedusa is where the two meet. The past and future, personal experiences, memories, the political situations in Africa and Europe. No topic is taboo for the director, and none is overlooked. The characters deliver soliloquies that allow the viewer a glimpse into the labyrinth of their internal worlds. Light, dark, day, and night, photogenic shots of the sea and island landscapes, everything associatively merging into the precise black-and-white visual component of a film that embraces both documentary and drama. The universality and timelessness of expressed thoughts blur the distinction between genders and peoples. Who are we and where are we headed? The uncompromising director brings up questions about the meaning of our existence, and, like his earlier films, his latest also points to the unclassifiable originality of his work.
Ivana Novotná
130 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Peter Schreiner
/ Screenplay Peter Schreiner
/ Dir. of Photography Peter Schreiner
/ Editor Peter Schreiner
/ Producer Peter Schreiner
/ Production echtzeitfilm
/ Cast Giuliana Pachner, Zakaria Mohamed Ali, Pasquale De Rubeis Anna Matina
/ Sales sixpackfilm
Peter Schreiner (b. 1957, Vienna) graduated from the Film and Television Department of the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (1981). In the early 1970s he began experimenting with the Super 8 format. He shoots his feature-length work in black-and-white, often over a period of years – true of both his early work (Auf dem Weg, 1986–89) and of the opus Fata Morgana (2010–12, KVIFF 47). I Cimbri (1988–91) was presented at the Berlinale, while Blaue Ferne (1995) saw festival play at Rotterdam. At Diagonale, Austria’s national fest, Bellavista (2004–06) took the award for best documentary. Another doc, Totó (2007–09), premiered at the Venice IFF and was subsequently screened at festivals around the world. Schreiner often fills a variety of roles on his films, serving as cameraman, producer, and editor. Lampedusa premiered internationally this year at the Rotterdam IFF.
sixpackfilm
Neubaugasse 45/13, 1070, Vienna
Austria
Phone: +43 152 609 900
E-mail: [email protected]
Brigitta Burger-Utzer
Distributor, Sales Agent
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