N.I.C.E. Città di Firenze 2014: premio ad Antonio Morabito e Alessandro Rak per “Il venditore di medicine”

Fedaisf editorial staff

December 12, 2014

locandina At the conclusion of the international tour to promote emerging Italian cinema in Russia and the United States, NICE New Italian Cinema Events, directed by Viviana del Bianco and Grazia Santini, closes the 50 Days of International Cinema in Florence on 14 December at 20.30 (Cinema Odeon) with the awarding and screening of "The Medicine Seller" by Antonio Morabito, winner of the Audience Award of the 24th NICE USA Festival. The director Antonio Morabito with Evita Ciri and Giorgio Gobbi, interpreters of the film, will meet the public before and after the screening.

Veenrdì 12 dicembre 2014 – stamptoscana

Alongside the American audience award, for the first time this year NICE, in collaboration with the Municipality of Florence and AGIS, establishes the City of Florence Award for best film "Jury of Tuscan school students" awarded by 5 schools in the Tuscan territory members of the “Keys to the City” project (IED, Cellini Tornabuoni Professional School, Machiavelli Capponi High School, Virgilio Artistic High School in Empoli and Artistic, Choreographic and Cinematic High School in Arezzo). The boys decreed the winner of this edition "The Art of Happiness", an animated film by the Neapolitan cartoonist Alessandro Rak who directed, story, screenplay and scenography, nominated for the European Film Award and the Golden Globe for the " Best Animated Film”. “It was very nice to work with students who put in a lot of effort and who watched the entire selection of films in a short time but with great respect and interestsaid Viviana del Bianco.

In San Francisco with NICE for the presentation of the film, Morabito was the first to be surprised by the result obtained from a film that deals with a strong theme such as "comparison". “It is something that concerns each of us – says the director – It is not an investigation, a documentary but a narration based on real facts. In spite of myself I found myself having to recover a drug not marketed in Europe, so I began to understand how a drug was synthesized and placed on the market with predominant and aggressive marketing dynamics, with all the consequent risks; because the matter in question is health and the client is the patient”. A chilling tale where news stories surpass fantasy: “Do you know what oncology means? Two thousand euros per vial!”. In the cast Claudio Santamaria in the role of the medical informant with a single categorical imperative in mind: "don't lose your job", the last link in a chain that will end up crushing him. “I inserted the news at the beginning of the film to make it clear that the story I was going to tell started from reality. Naturally we are talking about a dramaturgical representation, not an essay or a documentary; it is clear that the events that happen to Bruno (Saint Mary) they did not happen in reality to the same scientific informant; the non-places of the settings, the rarefied and semi-deserted atmosphere of the hospitals reflect the inner landscape of the protagonist, a continuous state of anxiety, the continuous pressures. But regarding the extent of the things that happen in the film I don't think I have exaggerated at all”. Next to Santamaria, Isabella Ferrari in the role of the area head, Marco Travaglio in the role of the odious Prof. Malinverni head of oncology, Evita Ciri in the role of Bruno's wife and Giorgio Gobbi, Bruno's doctor.

The 24th edition of the festival in the USA again this year recorded sold out screenings in the four US stops - New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and Philadelphia. After winning the Oscar, the attention and demand for Italian cinema grows. “The world wants to eat, dress, speak Italian! We Italians are the only ones who don't understand it…. for the festival's silver anniversary, next year we promise to bring the entire NICE selection back to New York with events celebrating Italian cinema; a big party with prominent personalities from international cinematography who have always supported and believed in the eventand,” Viviana del Bianco told the New York audience.

“We are satisfied with the selection we have proposed this year in the United States because it is made up of very different works” commented Grazia Santini. “It is vital for cinema that young filmmakers bring their new gaze to reality, proposing styles that are not homogenized by box office films. In San Francisco, the public only complained about one thing: that they couldn't see all the films they wanted because they were 14 films in just 5 days.the". The directors present at the Festival were all greeted with enthusiasm and warmth by the American public. Applause and resounding laughter during the screening for Paolo Genovese's Blame Freud; punctual and technical comments for Rossella De Venuto by the students of the New York Film Academy where the director studied and has returned to present her first feature film Controra accompanied by Federico Castelluccio (The Sopranos), interpreter of the film. At Stanford University The medicine seller was the subject of a long and heated debate with Antonio Morabito and in Santa Clara, a county twinned with the province of Florence, Edoardo Ponti enchanted the audience with a sense of humor and sympathy by presenting his two works The human voice, reinterpretation of Jean Cocteau in a Neapolitan version interpreted by Sophia Loren) and The night shift is done by the stars.

NICE concludes its long 2014 tour in Florence and prepares to leave again in 2015 for Russia, China and the United States.

– See more at: http://www.stamptoscana.it/articolo/my-stamp/n-i-c-citta-firenze-2014-premio-ad-antonio-morabito-alessandro-rak#sthash.v3rhjKCm.dpuf

To stream the movie: http://www.cb01.tv/il-venditore-2014/