Cinema and culture: 750 thousand euros from the Region for 14 new productions on sports, music and environment in Emilia-Romagna

Sports, music, environment. And then stories of love, fragility and wars. These are some of the topics touched upon by the 14 films and audiovisuals that the Region has supported and promotedThe list of works was approved by the Regional Council, which assigned contributions for 750 thousand euros.

The 14 new projects were selected through a call for proposals on film and audiovisual production aimed at companies with headquarters or local units in Emilia-Romagna, co-financed by the European Funds of the ERDF Regional Programme 2021-2027.

They are included in the selection two films, nine documentaries, three short filmsThe overall value of the works is almost 14 million euros, with an impact on the territory that is close to 7 million euros.

The selected productions

The works range from the documentary of the production house Tiwi mocha, with a lowercase m which reveals the history of the most common object in Italian homes in Small Boss with Rotacism, which follows the journey of Riccardo, born with Treacher Collins syndrome, which causes facial deformities and hearing problems, in search of his identity.

The great river and the balance of its ecosystem are at the centre of Via Po, from the manufacturer Filandolaretwhile its Sports is the protagonist of two documentaries: the first, directed by Giangiacomo DeStefano with Sun Film, is Aug, its Giacomo Agostini legend of Italian motorcycling in the 60s and 70s; the second is Imola 1994, touching the myth di Mammoth, Directed by Francis Merini, which tells the tragic Formula 1 accident in Imola in 1994 in which Ayrton Senna lost his life.

La music is at the center of two documentaries: They are just songs on the life of the singer-songwriter Edoardo Bennato, of Stefano Salvati with Daimon Productions. Rock Under Siege, Music Beyond War, Manufactured by Lullaby go back to 1995 when, during the siege of Sarajevo, a photographer from Bologna and a filmmaker discover an underground rock world.

Kine with A return addresses the issue of colonialism during the twenty years of fascism with Roman Ismani, a journalist who in 1938 left for a reportage from Ethiopia and came face to face with African reality.

The choice of Georges the cook, production Earthquakes, focuses on the love for a woman and a place. And so the French chef Georges Cogny decides against all convenience to live and work in a village in the Emilian Apennines depopulated by emigration.

Sayonara produces the short film The Veil of the Senses where Irene, Eugenio and Massimiliano are immersed in a universe of sounds, surfaces, flavours and smells, suggesting new possibilities for representing reality.

In Twisted Rodaggio tells the story of a twelve-year-old outsider from the provinces, diagnosed with scoliosis and wearing a corrective brace for 16 hours a day.

I put it with The blue hours introduces Bruno, a farmer from Emilia who hopes that his son Pavel, a soldier enlisted in the Ukrainian army and missing, is fleeing to return to him.

Among the feature films there is The Princess of the Waters by Michele Fasano who with his Sattva Film tells the story of Ramandeep and Prem who refuse the arranged marriage organized by their parents.

After the success of Est, the three young Cesena players Pago, Rice and Bibi in Returning to the East they hit the road again to tell another journey after the fall of the Berlin Wall, made of misunderstandings and international intrigues. Produced by Stradellest, directed by Antonio Pisu.

The evaluation cores

The evaluation units, coordinated by Fabio Abagnato, responsible for Emilia-Romagna Film Commission, are composed of Marco Cucco, senior researcher and director of the Master in Cinema and Audiovisual Management at the University of Bologna and Sandra Campanini, President of Fice Emilia-Romagna.