Moviemov Italian Film Festival returns to Manila, war melodrama opens festival

Luca Bellino, Silvia Luzi, Federica Sabatini, Mario Sesti, Goffredo Bettini,
Silvia D'amico, and Agostino Ferrente

After almost two and a half years, Moviemov: Italian Cinema Now 2019 has returned to Manila. And true to the Moviemov experience, a delegation from Italy composed of actors, directors, film personalities, and of course, Senator Goffredo Bettini, flew to the country for the duration of the film festival held at the Cinematheque Centre Manila at the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

The Italian delegation is led by actress Silvia D’amico who overcame her fear of traveling by air to be here as the godmother of this edition's Moviemov.

Agostino Ferrente, Mario Sesti, Federica Sabatini, Silvia Luzi, and Luca Bellino

Filmmaker Agostino Ferrente, whose film Selfie is part of the lineup, was in a more somber mood during the press conference as his thoughts are with the victims of the earthquake that shook parts of Luzon on Monday, the day before the film festival opened.

The ever reliable Cristina Moricca translating for Senator Goffredo Bettini

The directing duo of Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino of Il cratere, Saremo giovani e belissimi actress Federica Sabatini, and film critic Mario Sesti made up the rest of the delegation who graced the opening of the festival. It is such a pity that actor Lorenzo Richelmy, previously announced as part of the delegation, wasn't able to make it especially since he stars in Una questione privata, the festival's opening film.

Una questione privata/Rainbow: A Private Affair

The last film to be directed by the brothers Vittorio and Paolo Taviani as a duo, before Vittorio passed away in 2018, Una questione privata is about Milton (Luca Marinelli), a lovestruck resistance fighter whose political cause goes to the wayside as he searches for his friend Giorgio (Lorenzo Richelmy), who is also a partisan stationed elsewhere. Milton gets shaken when he learns that his object of affection, Fulvia (Valentina Belle), had several late night rendezvous with Giorgio soon after he left to join the resistance.

Milton's search for Giorgio gets more complicated when the latter gets captured by the fascists. He goes on trying to find himself a fascist to take prisoner whom he could exchange for his friend. And just like the mist that fogs the hills, Milton's mind is clouded as well with his search for Giorgio. In the end, it is still shrouded in mystery the final fates of the three.

Discussions on what the ending of the movie really means could be heard as soon as people left the Cinematheque. This made me wish that Richelmy was present at the festival to know his views regarding the ambiguous ending of the film. It probably would be helpful to get hold of a copy of the novel by Beppe Fenoglio  in which this film was based on to understand the movie a lot better.

Moviemov Italian Cinema Now 2019 runs until April 26, 2019 at the Cinematheque Center Manila at the Film Development Council of the Philippines.