(ANSAmed) – TETOUAN (MOROCCO), MARCH 26 – Mediterranean films are facing off for the 18th consecutive year at the Tetouan Festival in Morocco, a country that remains a cultural crossroads amid political unrest and changes, shake-ups proving less traumatic here than elsewhere. This unrest that films more than any other form of communication are able to convey. This city famous for its ancient and labyrinthine Medina (a World Heritage site) as well as the cultures that have made their mark on it (not only Arab but also Spanish and French, with all three languages widely spoken) hosted the festival’s opening night at the large, Belle Epoque cinema Avenida, with a wide-ranging programme on offer. The awards ceremony – with two Italian films (La Kriptonite nella Borsa by Ivan Cotroneo and Andrea Segre’s Io Sono Lì) will be held on March 31.
One of the protagonists is undoubtedly The Italian Daniele Luchetti, who the Tetouan Festival has already bestowed one award on, as well as paying homage to him. He is one of the Italian group brought here to Morocco by Rome’s MedFilm festival, alongside Ivan Cotroneo and the Neapolitan filmmaker Antonietta De Lillo, who was the brain behind the ”participant’ film ”Il Pranzo di Natale” (made up of a number of short films both by professional filmmakers and those not in the field). The three directors are very different from one another and are coming face to face with the lively ones of the ”southern shores” moving parallel to the Arab Spring uprisings (this year’s festival pays homage to Syria’s democratic aspirations). It is a shared Mediterranean identity, but one which is told in many different ways. ”Mediterranean filmmakers have a great opportunity with the internet and technological development, even in distribution terms,” De Lillo said. ”We must take advantage of innovations to represent our times. I think that my idea of a film made by a number of people is an interesting one, especially seeing how the Arab Spring has developed, with its widespread communication. In my opinion there must be an idea of belonging to the Mediterranean, and not one against another. It is an opportunity for sharing. Italian directors like Vincenzo Marra showed this attitude in ”Tornando a Casa”, that of reflections: we are the same and united, and we share these things. It is a great opportunity to spend time with each other.” Ivan Cotroneo called it a ”great event. There are too few chances like this one, and for me it is especially exciting, since it is one of the first times I am showing my film abroad.
Having the chance to compare ideas with other Mediterranean filmmakers, getting to chance to fid out about their problems, their ways of making films, is a very important opportunity, not only to see films not shown in Italian cinemas but also to speak to people. I am Neapolitan, a city intrinsically Mediterranean: we speak the same language. I was the screenwriter for Ferzan Ozpetek’s ”Mine Vaganti” – a director who was totally immersed in a culture going beyond borders. We shot the film in Istanbul, places where once one gets past the ‘folklore’ we find out what makes us who we are.” Cotroneo noted that he had worked with Luchetti on a strongly Mediterranean film – ”Dillo con Parole Mie” , set on a Greek island. ”We get to see very few of this type of film. There is no film distribution to speak of beyond that of US or French films. Only at festivals can we become aware of what we have in common, certain sensitivities that bring us together, though we use different ways to narrate the latter. Even Italian films are rarely seen abroad, with only 3 or 4 per year. And abroad they think that this small portion is all we make, or that it represents all of Italian film production. The international image has been colonized by the Americans. Over time and through the use of the internet, I hope the international market will open up. Our films can speak to foreign countries: I showed ‘La Nostra Vita’ to immigrants in France, and they identified with the work dynamics, the unfairness at the base of it, a reality which does not stop at one country’s borders.”(ANSAmed).
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