Discoveries from Italy World Cinema

In a village of the Po valley where the earth is hard and life miserly, the priest and the communist mayor are always fighting to be the head of the community. If in secret, they admired and liked each other, politics still divided them as it is dividing the country. And when the mayor wants his "People's House"; the priest wants his "Garden City" for the poor. Division exist between the richest and the poorest, the pious and the atheists and even between lovers. But if the people are hard as the country, they are good in the bottom of there heart.

A ragtag group of people have to fight extermination squads amid their ruined city.

Following a bungled robbery, three violent criminals take a young woman, a middle-aged man, and a child hostage and force them to drive them outside Rome to help them make a clean getaway.

Since he was a child, Orpheus has imagined stories about an abandoned villa across the street from his house. A solitary and visionary pianist, during an evening at the Polypus — the club where he plays — he meets Eura’s gaze. An unconditional love blossoms between them, but she’s concealing a secret. Then she disappears. One evening, Orpheus sees her enter a small door on Via Saterna, in front of the villa. He follows her. Before the threshold, he encounters the Green Man, an enigmatic figure who seems to know the mysteries of that passageway. Once through the door, Orpheus enters a visionary afterlife...

Italy, 1989. After years of hard training, 13-year-old Felice, carrying his father's expectations on his shoulders, finally sets out to compete in the national tennis tournaments. While dreaming of a simple summer vacation, he's instead placed under the wing of ex tennis champion Raul, an unconventional coach hired by his father. Match after match, the two embark on a journey that will lead Felice to discover the taste of freedom, and Raul to glimpse the possibility of a fresh start. As they travel along the Italian coast, an unexpected, deep, and sincere bond between them develops.

A beautiful American woman infiltrates the home of a novelist and his wife so she can investigate the disappearance of her lover — who was her employers’ previous secretary — and soon finds herself the target of the couple's erotic desires and a murder plot.

To escape a deadly virus, a father drives his family to a remote part of the countryside where they are given refuge by a farmer. But after the brutal slaughter of a cow and an encounter with a crazy old women in the forest, they soon discover that the farm is no safe haven.

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

In this second episode Dalmazio and Egisto come, respectively, from the prison and the insane asylum. They risk a second arrest for their awkwardness so they return from their "uncle" who is willing to help them.

Mirko and Genziano are two 35-year-old brothers who have not seen each other since their mother died in a freak accident in which they were involved—eighteen years ago. Since then, Genziano left to live in the UK and now is a stockbroker; Mirko instead remained in Rome, to stay with their father Marcello, working at the same run-down family shop. When Marcello dies, he leaves a task for the two brothers in his will: he asks them to take, on an old restored roadster, his ashes to the grave of his old mother in a village in Calabria, where the accident happened.

Valentine Demy and Susan Little star in this erotic tale of a young girl who sets off from the suburbs of New York City to seek fame as a dancer on Broadway. She finds that her exuberant body brings her into contact with many different facets of the Broadway nightlife, with sex as the dominant factor.

A hitman finds himself embroiled in the middle of a Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians.

A tale that takes place at the dawn of history. The movie tells the story of a tribe that discovers how to fashion weapons out of iron and use them for their own survival. However, the creation of iron also causes the tribe to battle for possession of the new weapons.

Pressured from all sides by the figure of her father, Chiara Mastroianni decides to bring him back to life through her own self. She goes by the name of Marcello, dresses like him and asks to now be considered an actor, not an actress. The people around her believe this to be a temporary joke, but Chiara is determined not to give up her new identity…

Sinbad returns from the sea to find his country subjected to the will of two unscrupulous sorcerers.

Friends Aldo, Giovanni, and Giacomo cross Italy from north to south for Giacomo's wedding: the father of the bride, a despotic magnate who is both their boss and father-in-law—since Aldo and Giovanni have also married into the family not for love but for money, a fate now awaiting Giacomo—has entrusted them with a priceless piece of modern art, one that looks just like a rather unremarkable wooden leg.

After the wild lifestyle of a famous young German photographer almost gets him killed, he goes to Palermo, Sicily to take a break. Can the beautiful city and a beautiful local woman calm him down?

A grizzled ex-sheriff helps a man framed for murder to confront the powerful trio of brothers who want him dead.

When mobsters try to put an honest policeman on the payroll, he seeks revenge on the mob. But, he soon learns that his actions, however honest, have dire consequences.

Set in Italy in the 1970s, VALLANZASCA is the true story of the Italian underworld’s most infamous outlaw. A criminal by age 9, Renato Vallanzasca grew up to become the country’s most notorious mobster before the age of 27. Vallanzasca and his gang wrested control of the Milan underworld with a string of high profile robberies, kidnappings and murders. In the process, he captivated the public and earned the nickname ‘il bel Renè’ – for his devilish charm and handsome face. Arrested multiple times, his daring escapes from prison enraged the government, angered his rivals and fed his legend.

Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano's bullet-riddled corpse is found facedown in a courtyard in Castelvetrano, a handgun and rifle by his side. Local and international press descend upon the scene, hoping to crack open the true story behind the death of this young man, who, at the age of twenty-seven, had already become Italy’s most wanted criminal and celebrated hero.

In the vibrant and colorful world of "Pink for the Masses", love and obsession intertwine in a turbulent tale. Pink, a young woman immersed in passion, is captivated by the charm of her tormentor.

An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples.

Little Rita has a dream: she dreams of a better world and she believes that all the evil in the world originates from gold. So she has decided to blow up all the gold she can put her hands on. In her mission she is assisted by the Indian Chief Bisonte Seduto and by her friend Francis. Little Rita kills Ringo and Django, but she is taken prisoner by the Mexican bandit Sancho who wants to steal her gold. Black Star rescues her and seems determined to help her, but does he?

Father Maurice, a priest living in a residential college for priests in Rome, is called out one day to "exorcise" the devil from someone. The devil turns out to be in the form of a fun-loving man called Giuditta. What Father Maurice doesn't know is that this type of devil will turn his life around.

A young pick-pocket meets a sheltered teenage girl at an art museum while trying to lift her wallet. He falls in love with her and lures her to deserted strip of beach where he pretends his stolen motorbike has broken down and they are stranded. An unlikely romance follows.

Antonio is married to a very wealthy woman but the sole heir of the family fortune is his daughter. He induce his dying wife to swear in the daughter of remaining "chaste and pure" ( so that she cannot marry ) until his own death.

At the end of World War II, shallow, self-centered Mara is the prettiest girl in her small Italian village; Bebo is a Communist partisan who is finding it difficult to adjust to the dull banalities of life in peacetime. When Mara’s father, a passionate Communist, declares that his daughter will marry the returning hero, her reactions range from joy to bitter resentment.

The myths of the sixties are satirized in 20 episodes.

A comedy film composed of 14 episodes. It is a sequel to I mostri, made in 1963. 1. The Finch of Val Padouan (Ettore Scola) - 2. Tantum ergo (Dino Risi) - 3. Hitchhiking (Mario Monicelli) - 4. Kidnapping of a Beloved Person (Ettore Scola) - 5. First Aid (Mario Monicelli) - 6. Big Boy to His Little Mother (Dino Risi) - 7. Model Citizen (Ettore Scola) - 8. Pornodiva (Dino Risi) - 9. Like a Queen (Ettore Scola) - 10. Inn! (Ettore Scola) - 11. Without Words (Dino Risi) - 12. The Funeral Oration (Ettore Scola)

Benito Mussolini resurfaces in Rome 72 years after his death, as if not a single day had passed. Finding a country still full of problems, both old and new, his firebrand rhetoric wins him once again the hearts and minds of millions of Italians — who see him as a wacky reenactor who speaks inconvenient truths to power.

In the midst of the war in Gaza during the Second Intifada in 2003, two 12-year-old boys, one Palestinian and one Israeli, along with a former surfing champion, form a friendship united by the love of water and learn from each other.

The year is 2037 A.D. Depletion of natural fuels has eliminated electrical power throughout the world. No light… no heat… no T.V., until a team of award-winning scientists succeeds in harnessing energy from the world’s oldest source of reciprocating motion.

A teenage girl falls in love with a man who works in live sex shows, and who just happens to be having an affair with the girl's stepmother--with her father's knowledge.

An aging soccer fanatic faces down the reality of his past while struggling to give himself and a young follower very different futures.

Lisa is a tourist in an ancient city. When she gets lost, she finds an old mansion in which to shelter. Soon she is sucked into a vortex of deception, debauchery and evil presided over by housekeeper Leandre.

Camilla, a middle-aged Venetian widow, arrives in Rome to take up service as a maid for the Rossetti family, who are not prosperous. With her discreet presence, she is an element of cohesion for them thru tensions and misfortunes.

Cannibal is based on the true-crime story of Armin Meiwes, the "Rotenburg Cannibal" who posted an online ad searching for someone to volunteer to be mutilated and eaten. Unlikely as it may seem, someone actually replied. The film shows a fictional portrayal of the meeting between the cannibal and his victim/participant, their homosexual relationship, and the eventual mutilation and murder of said victim.

A comic study of 20th-century history, reconstructing the life of writer, creator and professional prisoner Tulse Luper. Born in 1911 Newport and last heard of in 1989, Luper’s life is pieced together from the evidence found in 92 suitcases scattered across the globe. A Life in Suitcases condenses the six-hour trilogy into a single two-hour feature, and in doing so, accentuates the project as a filmic essay in multiple narratives, listings, sidebars, footnotes, commentaries and anecdotes; a project for an Information Age ready to understand that there never is a phenomenon called History, there can only be Historians, gatekeepers to vested interests.

Near the end of the Civil War, an imprisoned Confederate raider is sent under guard to warn both his men and the Army at Fort Yuma that an impending rebel raid is really nothing but a ruse by scoundrels from both sides, in cahoots to take the fort's gold for themselves during the chaos. Soon he slips his treacherous escort and attempts to complete the mission himself.

In the untamed beauty of the island owned by an extraordinarily wealthy Marquis, Elena's arrival marks the beginning of a passionate love affair. Complicity and transgression, sex and power, in a film inspired by 1960s Italian true crime, where erotic play unfolds into obsession.

In a small village in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Solé family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard. But when plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction – and the loss of far more than their home.

Hoping to overthrow his brother as ruler of the planet Metropolis, the evil Graal enlists the help of the insane Dr. Kraspin, who has invented a chemical capable of turning an ordinary person into a perfect soldier. They test this chemical on the pilot Golob, turning the unsuspecting victim into a mindless but indestructible automaton possessing superhuman strength. The people of Metropolis must somehow outwit Graal before he can create an army of these soldiers, or their planet will be destroyed.

A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.

Antonio is a retired aviator in an unnamed country ruled by a military junta which violently suppresses any free thought. He falls in love with a member of the resistance against the dictatorship. He is arrested but escapes with his love. The code word among the resisters is: ‘Life is Beautiful’.

The life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) as related by followers who gather after his death to tell stories so that Leone can record them: a privileged and virile youth, a prisoner of war, an heir who turns away from his father and gives all to the poor, a beggar for others, and an inspiration to friends who accept the Gospels' life of poverty.

A family with a long history (and many members) gathers around a table in a mansion in southern Portugal. The region has transformed from a depressed area into a thriving tourist destination. Kisses, hugs, and greetings quickly turn into complaints and reproaches surrounding the big issue: What should be done with Daddy’s house? It is a tempting piece of cake, laden with rich family memories. But progress cannot be stopped.

Valentina and Giovannino have just got married, but the Honeymoon has gone by and nothing happened between the two. Tension grows and they are about to break up the marriage, until a French tourist satisfies Valentina, while Giovannino regains his virility with his mother in law.

After several Catholic school pupils are murdered, a teacher who is having an affair with one of his students becomes a suspect. When other gruesome murders start occurring shortly thereafter, the teacher suspects that he may be the cause of them.

It's 1987, the final act of the Maxi Trial in Palermo, the largest criminal trial in Italian history. On this occasion, eight jurors, four women and four men, are locked in a deliberation chamber for thirty-six days. Their task is to determine the convictions or acquittals of 470 defendants accused of mafia crimes.

The spirit of a comatose teenage girl possesses the body of a newcomer to her girls' boarding school in order to enact bloody revenge against the elitist, lingerie-clad coeds responsible for her condition.

The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.

A group of strangers are summoned to the secluded home of Patrick, a young man rendered comatose after a freak accident, but soon find themselves falling victim to Patrick's mysterious psychic powers and murderous rage.

At the behest of local revolutionaries, a mercenary enlists four specialists in various combat styles to help him rob a Mexican Army train carrying $500,000 in gold.

The famous Italian football coach Oronzo Canà has retired to a villa in Apulia. Now, old and tired, he is enjoying a quiet life there, cultivating his vineyard, when suddenly he is summoned to Milan, in northern Italy. There the elderly chairman of a great Lombard ("Longobarda") club is suffering from dementia and has lost his powers of judgement, and the club's manager has been fired. He has decided to bring back Oronzo Canà as trainer, remembering him from his great football team of thirty years before, tasking him with bringing the club back to its old winning ways. Oronzo puts his trust in the intervention of a Russian billionaire who has bought the club for promotion. But it is a deception.

A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia, a province in the south of Italy. They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey.

On the eve of the fall of the Ottoman Empire: in the harem of Sultan Abdulhamit II, the odalisque of Italian origin Safiyè dreams of becoming the sultan's first mistress. To achieve her goal, the girl, aided by the eunuch Nadir, is even willing to kill. But when her dream is finally about to come true, her entire world suddenly collapses: the sultan is exiled, the harem is closed, and the odalisques and eunuchs are abandoned to their fate.