Synopses, cast & credits of the feature length and short films of LGBT interest, presented at the 77. Venice International Film Festival.
SYNOPSES, CAST & CREDITS
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Fucking with Nobody by Hannaleena Hauru (Finland, 102′, 2020)
Hanna is an aspiring actress that, after a negative screen test, decides to make her own movie, helped by her sister and some friends. They decide to stage her relationship with the younger, gay Ekku, destined to be published on Instagram and then turned into a movie, testing therefore even the need for romance hidden in their instagram followers. But when reality and fiction start to blebd, things get complicated.
Presented in Biennale College
La nuit des rois (Night of the Kings) by Philippe Lacôte (Ivory Coast, France, Canada, 92′, 2020)
A young man is sent to “La Maca”, a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman” and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named “Zama King” and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn. Following the orders of Boss «Barbe Noir», the inmates stage the long story narrated by «Roman» with songs, dances, choreographed battles. A non-musical prison movie rich in suggestions. Among the all-male inmates, each with his own nickname, also the transvestite «Sexy», “partner” of the most powerful prisoners.
Presented in Orizzonti
Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie (Never Gonna Snow Again) by Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert (Poland, Germany, 113’, 2020)
Cast: Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska, Agata Kulesza, Weronika Rosati, Andrzej Chyra
Poland. A masseur from Ukraine enters the daily, dull lives of the wealthy residents of a closed community. In spite of their wealth, these people look sad and bored. The hands of the newcomer heal them, his eyes seem to pierce their souls. To them, that man’s Russian accent sounds like a song from the past, a memory of their childhood. Zhenia, this is his name, will change their lives. The movie solicits sharp questions about sexuality, intimacy, contact, with atmospheres referencing Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Teorema”.
Presented in Venezia 77
The Human Voice by Pedro Almodóvar (Usa, Spain, 30’, 2020)
A loose adaptation of the original theatrical monodrama by Jean Cocteau, on which Pedro Almodóvar worked for decades. A desperate woman (Tilda Swinton) awaits for the phone call of the lover who just abandoned her. It’s Almodóvar’s first english-spoken project. Swinton/Almodóvar, two worldwide icons of both Cinema and Queer Culture, paired for the first time.
Presented in Fuori Concorso
Nattåget (The Night Train) by Jerry Carlsson (Sweden, 15’, 2020)
Oskar is on the night train, heading home after an interview in Stockholm. With a long night ahead of him, he makes eye contact with Ahmad. For the first time he meets the gaze of someone who feels the same desire as he does.
Presented in Orizzonti
The Return of Tragedy by Bertrand Mandico (France, 24’, 2020)
Two policemen interrupt a secret ceremony: a woman being disembowelled at the bottom of a garden to let out her inner beauty. This situation is presented in a variety of ways and all possibilities are explored.
Presented in Orizzonti
Queerskins Ark by Illya Szilak, Cyril Tsiboulski (Usa, 17’, 2020)
Reading a diary left by the estranged son she has lost to AIDS, a Catholic mother (Hadley Boyd) living in rural Missouri finds a way to transcend her self and her grief by imagining him alive and in love. With heart-wrenching performances by Michael DeBartolo and Christopher Vo in volumetric video and the storytelling potential of spatial sound, Ark allows you to enter her imagination and co-create the lovers’ intimate dance through your body position and movements. An Intel Studios Original co-produced with Cloudred.
Presented in Venice Virtual Reality
Gravidade VR by Fabito Rychter, Amir Admoni (Brazil, Perù, 15’, 2020)
Gravidade VR is a wild ride through a chaotic world. In this experience you follow the last moments of two men (brothers? friends? loving partners maybe?) while free falling for 15 minutes. An emotional and thrilling journey in a surreal universe with no ground beneath your feet. A parable, a fable, an interactive experience.
Presented in Venice Virtual Reality
En ce moment (In this moment) by Serena Vittorini (Italy, 15’, 2020)
In This Moment is a love story involving two young women during the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. They meet and fall in love, then the world shrinks around them, and their relationship is concentrated in one place and time. The film shows their attempts to express their own emotions and needs in a series of moments oscillating between intensity, suffering and passion.
Presented in Giornate degli Autori
Miu Miu Women’s Tales #19 – Nightwalk by Małgorzata Szumowska (Italy, Poland, 9’, 2020)
It’s nighttime in Warsaw, Poland. Two very different homes. In one, a father is slovenly stretched out on a sofa, watching sports, expecting his son to be everything he is. In another apartment, all clean modern, an affluent mother sits to have dinner with her daughter, who isn’t like her at all. Simultaneously, both the boy and the girl embark on a night journey of transformation, where they shed their inherited gender layers. The city streets become a catwalk of liberation. When they meet, by chance – face-to-face, body-to-body – they wordlessly mirror each other with comfort and assurance.
Presented in Giornate degli Autori
J’ador by Simone Bozzelli (Italy, 16’, 2020)
Rome. Claudio is 15 years-old. Someone is writing “J’ador” on his forehead because he smells like a little girl. It’s Lauro, eighteen-year-old, leader of a group made of guys claiming to be fascists and doing a lot of things for a far-right party. Claudio wants to go with them to the “dinner”, but only those who belong to the group can join it, and not the little girls like him. If he truly wants to achieve his goal, one afternoon Claudio must lose its boy scent and learn how to smell like a man.
Presented in Settimana Internazionale della Critica
