Carolina Raspanti, a non-professional actress with Down's syndrome, stars in the prize- winning movie Dafne. Photo filmlinc.org

Organised by the Italian Embassy in Hanoi, the festival aims to offer the Vietnamese public a glimpse of contemporary Italian cinema.

All the movies presented during the festival deal with some of the most relevant themes in today’s Italian society, such as immigration, urban living conditions, family relationships and resilience in face of difficulties. The movies’ inspiring stories invite viewers to look at contemporary society from a different perspective and help them better understand the complexity of the times in which they are living.

The festival will open with the movie Magari (If Only) – a debut movie by screenwriter and director by Ginevra Elkann. The movie is a sentimental comedy about three kids of divorced parents who, while living in Paris with their bourgeois Russian-Orthodox mother, are suddenly packed off and sent to stay with their unconventional and broke Italian father, Carlo.

On Saturday, Sole by director Carlo Sironi will be presented. The movie is about a Polish surrogate mother coming to Italy to give birth to a baby, where she is taken care of by the uncle of the prospective parents, who is paid to claim he is the father of the child.

Bangla by Phaim Bhuiyan is a semi-autobiographical romantic comedy, where filmmaker Bhuiyan plays Phaim, an awkwardly charming 22-year-old Muslim musician of Bangladeshi origins. While living with his family in Rome’s diverse Torpignattara neighbourhood, he falls for Asia, a spirited, impulsive Italian girl he meets at a gig. How can Phaim find a way to reconcile his desire for her with his religion’s prohibition against sex outside of marriage?

The screening schedule also includes Quaffer by Antonio Farisi, and Dafne by Federico Bondi.

After a referendum on divorce in 1974, in a little village in the south of Italy, Michele the barber, whom everyone calls "quaffer", believes that he can divorce his wife just by changing his identity card, easily as his address. He finally finds that it is more complicated than he thought. His decision to separate from his wife upsets the small rural community. While some villagers believe that is it the divine wrath, some others worry of the invasion of modernity.

Winner of the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival 2019, Dafne by Federico Bondi features Carolina Raspanti (as Dafne), a non-professional actress with Down's syndrome.

Dafne leads a quiet family life that is upended by the sudden death of her mother. Both Dafne and her father, Luigi (Antonio Piovanelli), struggle to support each other as they process this loss: Luigi withdraws into depression, while Dafne gravitates toward greater responsibility at work and at home.

The Italian Film Festival 2020 will take place at the National Cinema Centre, 87 Lang Ha Street. All screenings will start at 8pm at Room No 2 on the second floor.

Free tickets can be reserved by sending an email to culturale.hanoi@esteri.it or collected at the National Cinema Centre’s Information Counter.

All the movies will also be presented at a similar event in HCM City, from December 17 to 22, at the Hoa Sen University. VNS

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