anticipated by
Conversation with Pupi Avati
Caligari Special Award
Novel presentation and film screening
Bologna, just after the Nazi occupation has ended and the city has been freed. A troubled young man has gazed upon a beautiful woman soldier: one look, and he is convinced that she is the love of his life. A year later, completely by chance, he goes to live in the American Midwest, in the house next door to her, separated from hers by a rather sinister backyard. Here lives the woman’s elderly mother who is distraught over her daughter’s disappearance at war’s end, after writing that she would be marrying an Italian, then falling silent. The young man now sets off on a search that is highly suspenseful, all the way to a quite unexpected denouement in Italy.
based on the novel of the same name
by Pupi Avati
(Solferino, 2024)
screenplay
Pupi Avati
Tommaso Avati
cinematography
Cesare Bastelli
editing
Ivan Zuccon
production design
Biagio Fersini
costumes
Beatrice Giannini
sound
Pompeo Iaquone
cast
Filippo Scotti (Him)
Roberto De Francesco (Emilio)
Armando De Ceccon (Glauco)
Chiara Caselli (Doris)
Rita Tushingham (Flora)
Massimo Bonetti (Judge)
Morena Gentile (Arianna)
Mildred Gustafsson (Barbara)
Romano Reggiani (P.M.)
producers
Antonio Avati
Gianluca Curti
Santo Versace
productions
DUEA Film
Minerva Pictures
with Rai Cinema
Italian distribution
01 Distribution
annalisa.paolicchi@raicinema.it
www.01distribution.it
Pupi Avati, while studying political science at college, also played the clarinet in the Rheno Jazz Band, which would tour all over Europe and go on to triumph at the European Jazz Festival in Antibes. He was also introduced to filmmaking at the same time. In 1968, Avati succeeded in finding funding for his first feature film, Balsamus, and since then, he has made over fifty films, several television programs, and a series of TV commercials. In parallel, he has collaborated on the screenplays of a number of films, including Pierpaolo Pasolini’s Salò. With his brother Antonio, the head of DUEA Film, he has made it possible for many young Italian directors to break into film.
Filmografia selezionata
2024 L’orto americano
2023 La quattordicesima domenica
del tempo ordinario
2010 Una sconfinata giovinezza
2005 Ma quando arrivano le ragazze?
1997 Il testimone dello sposo
1993 Magnificat
1991 Bix
1986 Regalo di Natale
1985 Festa di laurea
1985 Impiegati
1983 Una gita scolastica
1983 Zeder
1976 La casa dalle finestre che ridono
1968 Balsamus, l’uomo di Satana
