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Screen can unveil the first trailer for Isabella Torre’s debut feature Basileia, set to world premiere out of competition as Venice Days’ closing film on September 6.

The Italian fantasy drama follows an archaeologist and his assistants searching for an ancient treasure whose digging unleashes mythological creatures that shake up the lives of the inhabitants of a remote village forever.

Cast includes Godland star Elliott Crosset Hove, Angela Fontana, and Koudous Seihon.

Shot on location in Calabria, Basileia is an adaptation of Torre’s short Nymphs which premiered in Venice Horizons 2018.

The film is produced by Jonas and Paolo Carpignano...

Paris-based sales outfit Luxbox has boarded international sales for Isabella Torre’s debut feature Basileia, produced by Jonas Carpignano.

The Italian fantasy drama is set in southern Italy and follows an archaeologist team whose latest dig accidentally unleashes mythical creatures. It is an adaptation of Torre’s debut feature Nymphs which premiered in Venice Horizons 2018.

Godland star Elliott Crosset Hove leads the cast with Angela Fontana, Koudous Seihon, Marco Raco, Ilaria Caffio and Ylenia Romano.

Carpignano produces Basileia through his outfit Stayback Productions while co-producers are Film I Väst, Snowglobe and Rai Cinema.

Torre’s second short Full Moon...

Jonas Carpignano's A Chiara is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries starting August 26, 2022, in the series The New Auteurs and Jonas Carpignano: The Calabrian Trilogy.A Chiara (2021).Her sister’s birthday party is still in full swing when fifteen-year-old Chiara (Swamy Rotolo) sees her dad leave the celebrations, rush to his car, and drive away. There have been other times in Jonas Carpignano’s A Chiara when the teen’s father seemed to know more than he let on, but this is the first he radiates a sinister energy, something Chiara has never sensed before and doesn’t know how to decipher. Stunned, she looks on. The whole scene lasts a handful of seconds, most of which Carpignano spends on the girl’s face as she takes it all in: her dad sneaking out of the restaurant where the whole family’s dancing, his last words to her,...

Writer-director Jonas Carpignano completes his Calabrian trilogy with A Chiara, an enthralling drama about a teenage girl coming to terms with her family’s role in the mafia, which won the Europa Cinema Label at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. With a documentary-like authenticity, this is a touching, powerful film with a lyrical visual palette and a superb sense of time and place.

As in Mediterranea and A Ciambra, which told stories about immigration and the Roma community, respectively, Carpignano takes us to Gioia Tauro at the southern tip of the Italian mainland. For ten years the director has embedded himself here, a place infamous for the penetration in all walks of life of the ‘Ndrangheta, the secretive mafia clan that by some accounts controls three percent of Italy’s Gdp.

A Chiara begins, like another famous mafioso movie, with a party. To the tunes of Italian trap, Guilia (Grecia Rotolo) celebrates her 18th birthday,...

Xavier Henry-Rashid’s London-based sales agency Film Republic has picked up world rights to Rolando Colla’s “What You Don’t Know About Me,” which receives its world premiere this week at the Zurich Film Festival.

The story follows the relationship between a refugee and a Swiss national, who get caught up in the turmoil of unfounded police accusations against him. Colla says he was inspired to make the film, which is based on a true story, because he wanted to explore what happens to the refugees when they are no longer in the headlines. In the film the refugee faces a choice between deportation or integration by means of a forced confession.

“What You Don’t Know About Me” features Linda Olsansky (“Happiness Is a Warm Gun”) and Koudous Seihon, seen previously in Cannes Critics’ Week title “Mediterranea.”

The film is produced by Peacock Film, and coproduced with Emanuele Nespeca...

In his new film The Ciambra, director Jonas Carpignano offers an arresting, uncompromising and hugely compelling story about a marginalised community living in southern Italy. Featuring several characters from his neo-realist debut feature Mediterranea which tackled the thorny issue of the European refugee crisis with a great deal of empathy and humanitarian reverence for its protagonists, the film is a welcome return for a filmmaker who keeps on pushing the boundaries with each new release, making him one of the most promising filmmakers of his generation, impressing even Martin Scorsese who is cited as executive producer on this new production.

Taking us right into the heart of a small Romani community living in the Calabrian town of Gioia Tauro the film, which stars mostly non professional actors, including several members of the now infamous Amato family, presents a beautifully executed coming of age story about a boy on the cusp of manhood,...

After winning the Europa Cinemas Label award at last years Cannes Film Festival, Jonas Carpignano’s The Ciambra will finally see a general release on June 15th. We have an exclusive first look at the film’s trailer and poster below.

Written by Jonas Carpignano, who also takes the helm on only his second feature film, it stars Pio Amato as Pio Amato, Koudous Seihon and Damiano Amato as Cosimo.

The film was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and went on obtain the Europa Cinemas Label Award at the festival. It was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Also in trailers – Joaquin Phoenix goes through a life-changing experience in new trailer for Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

The film is released on June 15th.

Few things should get a cinephile more excited than hearing the phrase “the new film from Jonas Carpignano” come before the title of a film they’re about to see. Best known as the director of the beloved Mediterranea, Carpignano has become one of Italy’s most exciting filmmakers in an incredibly short amount of time. Well, now he’s back with a new coming of age picture, that just so happens to have a cosign from none other than director Martin Scorsese.

With the Taxi Driver director aboard as executive producer, Carpignano returns for his Mediterranea follow-up, a film entitled A Ciambra. Hot off a 2017 festival run that spanned the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at Cannes to the Contemporary World Cinema section of the Toronto International Film Festival, A Ciambra introduces the viewer to the titular Romani community in Calabria, and one young man living within it. Pio Amato is...

A Ciambra Sundance Selects Director: Jonas Carpignano Screenwriter: Jonas Carpignano Cast: Pio Amato, Koudous Seihon, Iolanda Amato, Damiano Amato Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 1/9/18 Opens: January 19, 2018 As a sequel to Jonas Carpignano’s 2015 “Mediterranea,” depicting two people making the dangerous trip from North Africa to southern Italy, “A Ciambra” has a new […]

The post A Ciambra Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

A Ciambra is a pretty amazing movie…it reminds me somewhat of Gemorrah, also filmed in Calabria and centering around a young man who wants to break with a tradition of crime. Jonas Carpignano, the director whose previous film Mediterranea was huge success in Cannes, said that was a compliment as it was one of his favorite movies.Actor Koudous Seihon with Jonas Carpignano

Jonas Carpignano was also so charming and available to us all the night it screened at Wme, the agency which represents him!

The movie saddened me by its portrayal of gypsies, but was fascinating at the same time.

In A Ciambra, a small Romani (as the gypsies of Italy are labeled) community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the region’s factions — the local Italians, the African refugees and his fellow Romani.

A Ciambra Trailer Jonas Carpignano‘s A Ciambra (2017) U.S. movie trailer stars Pio Amato, Koudous Seihon, Damiano Amato, Francesco Pio Amato, and Iolanda Amato. A Ciambra‘s plot synopsis: “In a small Romani community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the [...]

Continue reading: A Ciambra (2017) Movie Trailer: Pio Amato Studies & Becomes Part of Italy’s Underworld...

"You're almost a man Pio." IFC + Sundance Selects has debuted the official Us trailer for A Ciambra, a film that played to great reviews in the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The story follows a 14-year-old boy named Pio growing up in a Romani community in Southern Italy. Martin Scorsese loved the film so much, he joined as an executive producer and is presenting it in the Us. The trailer starts out with a nice Scorsese quote about how the world in the film is so fully realized he felt like he was "living alongside its characters." Starring Pio Amato as Pio, plus Koudous Seihon & Damiano Amato. If you haven't already heard about this film, now is the time, and you'll probably hear more about this as it gets closer to the release. It won't open in the Us until early 2018, but catch the trailer below for your first look.

Director Jonas Carpignano returns with his first film since Mediterranea (which broke out from Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar two years ago) to remind us that alpha male pecking orders are unavoidable in some parts of the world and that life is still incredibly difficult for Italian Romani. Examined through the microcosm of a four-generation strong family in a small settlement in Calabria in Southern Italy, A Ciambra follows the compelling coming of age story of a young man named Pio (Pio Amato) who is thrust into adulthood when his father and brother are locked up.

It would be a stretch to say that Carpignano diverts in any major way from the gritty aesthetic that has become synonymous with post-Dardennes (and, in particular, post-Rosetta) social realist cinema — all overcast clouds above and gravel below — nor those films’ favored narrative arc. It does, however, pulsate with true authenticity, surely down to the...

In the thickets of the art-house, a wonderful cinematic universe has blossomed, one that doesn’t involve Marvel superheroes. Expanding his 2014 award-winning short into a full-length feature, “A Ciambra” sees Jonas Carpignano continue to survey Romani life in the tiny Italian neighborhood of Gioia Tauro, through the eyes of Pio (portrayed by non-professional teen Pio Amato). We last saw Pio make a cameo (and almost steal the entire show) in Carpignano’s previous feature, “Mediterranea,” the story of Ayiva (Koudous Seihon), an immigrant from Burkina Faso who ends up in Italy and meets Pio for the first time.

Continue reading Jonas Carpignano’s ‘A Ciambra’ Is A Coming-of-Age Tale You Won’t Soon Forget [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

Jonas Carpignano has made two features; both are hyper-specific character studies about people living in the Southern Italian city of Gioia Tauro. And despite the limited scope of his work, the young writer-director might be one of the world’s most vital filmmakers. Isolating a minor character from 2015’s “Mediterranea” and recasting him as the heart and soul of an unusually volatile coming-of-age story, “A Ciambra” further articulates why Gioia Tauro is such a vivid microcosm of the seismic cultural realignments that are defining the 21st century.

More than that, it also underlines why Carpignano is uniquely capable of capturing the city on camera; having earned the trust of the local population, he makes movies shaped by the people who live there. They are stories of pride, not pity — stories that respect the burden of identity and know that kindness isn’t always enough to bridge the divides that separate us from each other.

★★★★☆ Jonas Carpignano's debut feature Mediterranea follows the fortunes of two African migrants, Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), friends from Burkina Faso in search of a better life on the European continent. They endure a hazardous journey through Algeria and survive a run in with violent bandits. Once in Libya, they join a group of illegals for the dangerous voyage over water. All are dismayed when the smugglers ask for a volunteer to pilot the boat that will take them to Europe. Ayiva and Abas cross the Mediterranean in a fragile, overloaded dingy that capsizes in a storm, terrifyingly evoked by Carpignano and cinematographer Wyatt Garfield. Others do not make it.

The night before it would go on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, Spotlight wound up having a great night at the Spirit Awards. Yes, Tom McCarthy’s film all but swept the Spirits, beating back what originally seemed like a strong challenge from Todd Haynes’ Carol, not to mention Sean Baker’s Tangerine and Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation. Personally, I’m thrilled that Spotlight won here, but it appeared originally like it was an awards show tailor made for Carol. Go figure. It was a night that would mirror the Academy in more ways than one ultimately, so let’s take a look… Obviously, it was a very good night for Spotlight, perhaps its best all season long. Not only did it take Best Feature, but McCarthy won Best Director as well as Best Screenplay, which he of course shares with Josh Singer. The film...

Yay! My favorite film of 2015 was the big winner at the recently concluded Film Independent Spirit Awards taking home the best feature, director (Tom McCarthy), screenplay, and editing. It was previously announced that the film was the winner of the prestigious Robert Altman Award (ensemble) as well.

Oh and kudos to the Film Independent Spirit Awards for bestowing their Best Supporting Actress Award to Mya Taylor for "Tangerine!" Taylor becomes the first transgender performer to receive major acting award! See her acceptance speech right here.

Let's see if this will continue with tonight's Oscars. See my full Oscar predictions right here.

Here's the complete list of winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards:

Best Feature

Award given to the Producer; Executive Producers are not awarded.

"Anomalisa"

"Beasts of No Nation"

"Carol"

*** "Spotlight" (Winner)

"Tangerine"

Best Director

Cary Joji Fukunaga, "Beasts of No Nation"

Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson, "Anomalisa"

David Robert Mitchell,...

The 31st Independent Spirt Awards took place this Saturday, February 27 with the fiendishly talented and hilarious Kate McKinnon & Kumail Nanjiani co-hosting the event. Take a look at their parody of one of this year’s best films Room below. The show, as in years past, aligned with the Academy Awards in some moments, but also served to do what the Oscars can’t, or won’t in others. Perhaps that’s just as it should be. Brie Larson won for Best Female Lead for Room, and is very likely to win the Academy Award for Best Actress tomorrow night. However, Spotlight, which won Best Feature, Director, and Screenplay at the Spirit Awards is in a three way race with The Revenant and The Big Short for the top prize at the Oscars. Though it’s likely to take Best Screenplay there as well. Typically, the Academy favors flashier films, so...

Todd Haynes is in the running for best director and both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are in contention for best female lead alongside Room’s Brie Larson as Carol earned six 2016 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Close behind were Spotlight and Beasts Of No Nation on five apiece, followed by indie darling Tangerine and Anomalisa on four each.

Not even a glitch that saw the list of nominees temporarily appear on the Film Independent website prior to the official announcement could spoil what turned out by and large to be a recognition of independent film in its myriad forms.

Besides the more predictable contenders like Carol, Spotlight and Room, there was plenty of love for Tangerine, shot on an iPhone, and Beasts Of No Nation from Netflix, whose day-and-date release (and what that portends) infuriated large swathes of the exhibition sector but has clearly impressed critics.

Magnolia Pictures earned...

The nominations for the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced Tuesday, giving boosts to several films' Oscars chances.

"Carol" led the pack with six nominations, including nods in most of the major categories (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay), and two Best Lead Actress nominations for its headlining duo, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It was followed by Netflix flick "Beasts of No Nation," which scored five nominations in the big categories (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Lead Male) as well as the technical ones (Best Cinematography, Best Editing).

As TheWrap notes, "Beasts" nominations have helped secure it some serious consideration come Oscars time. But another big surprise was the small number of nominations for "Room," considered by many to be a Best Picture contender at the Academy Awards. It was left off the Spirit Awards's Best Feature list, though it did score a Best Female Lead nomination for Best Actress Oscar frontrunner Brie Larson.

Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the La Film Festival and Film Independent at Lacma, announced nominations for the 2016 Spirit Awards this morning. Film Independent President Josh Welsh presided over the press conference held at W Hollywood, with actors John Boyega and Elizabeth Olsen presenting the nominations.

Nominees for Best Feature included Anomalisa, Beasts of No Nation, Carol, Spotlight and Tangerine.

“This year’s nominees are a testament to the strength, vitality and diversity of independent, artist-driven filmmaking,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. “It’s an astonishingly strong group of films and performances this year and we look forward to celebrating them all at the Spirit Awards.”

Spotlight was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. The Altman Award was created in 2008 in honor of legendary director Robert Altman...

Todd Haynes' "Carol" is shaping up to be the movie to beat this awards season. Based on Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, the romantic drama stars Cate Blanchett as an older, married woman who is developing some strong feelings towards a seasonal shopgirl played by Rooney Mara. And the actresses may have to prepare their acceptance speeches! "Carol" leads the pack of nominees for the 31st Independent Spirit Awards!

I'm also very happy that "Tangerine" by Sean Baker received 4 nods for Best Feature, Director, Female Lead (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), and Supporting Female for Mya Taylor. shot mostly on iPhone, this small-budget wonder is truly what the Independent Spirit is all about!

Some of my few gripes are not a whole lot of love for the fantastic "Room" (just screenplay, female lead for Brie Larson, and editing -- what about the awesome child actor Jason Tremblay?), and that...

In its 31st year, the Film Independent Spirt Awards showcase the best that modest (and, occasionally, lower budget) filmmaking has to offer annually. This year, it’s little surprise the the stellar Carol is leading the pack with six nominations, while Spotlight and Beasts of No Nation are close behind with five each. On the actual smaller scale of productions, the iPhone-shot drama Tangerine picked up a heft four nominations, a film that, alongside Anomalisa and the aforementioned titles, rounds out their Best Feature category.

Ahead of a ceremony on Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 5Pm Est, check out the full list of nominations below, which also recognize It Follows, Bone Tomahawk, The End of the Tour, Room, The Mend, James White, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Heaven Knows What, and more.

Best Feature

Award given to the Producer; Executive Producers are not awarded.

“Anomalisa”

“Beasts of No Nation”

“Carol”

“Spotlight...

The 2016 Independent Spirit Awards have announced their nominations for this year with some surprising and excellent choices all across the board.

While expected awards heavyweights like "Carol," "Room," and "Spotlight" are here, numerous genre and niche titles like "It Follows," "Tangerine," "Bone Tomahawk," "The Diary of a Teenage Girl," "James White," "The End of the Tour," and "Anomalisa" have scored multiple nominations along with Netflix's "Beasts of No Nation".

Both "Carol" and 'Beasts' scored six nominations each, followed by "Spotlight," "Tangerine" and "Anomalisa" with four and "It Foll ows" with three. The 2016 Independent Spirit Awards will air on February 27th.

Best Feature

Anomalisa

Beasts of No Nation

Carol

Spotlight

Tangerine

Best Director

Cary Joji Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation

Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson – Anomalisa

David Robert Mitchell – It Follows

Sean Baker – Tangerine

Todd Haynes – Carol

Tom McCarthy – Spotlight

Best Female Lead

Bel Powley – The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Brie Larson...

Laszlo Nemes wins best director for Son of Saul; Mediterranea wins best first film.

The Stockholm International Film Festival awarded its Bronze Horse award for best film to Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs.

The jury – comprised of producer Mimmi Spång, director Peter Grönlund, director Christian Zübert, director Di Phan Dang, and director Arab Nasser – said the film was an “aesthetic masterpiece, a film that innovatively uses all cinematic components to move freely between present, past, dream and imagination. With this tightly woven family drama, the director gradually patches together our broken inner places and makes us visible to ourselves – and to each other.”

The other prize winners were:

Best first film: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano

Best director: László Nemes, Son of Saul

Best script: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour, Mustang

Best cinematography: Manuel Dacosse, Evolution

Best actress: Julija Steponaityte, The Summer of Sangaile

Best actor: Koudous Seihon, Mediterranea

Best...

As Europe and Western nations grapple with the growing refugee crisis, particularly in the context of last week's horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, "Mediterranea" is particularly timely. Premiering at the Cannes Critics' Week, and picking up honors at the Munich Film Festival and Zurich Film Festival, the film is now gearing up to open stateside, and today we have an exclusive clip. Read More: Review: Jonas Carpignano's Topical, Intelligent, Empathetic 'Mediterranea' Starring Koudous Seihon and Alassane Sy, directed by Jonas Carpignano, and featuring a score composed by "Beasts Of The Southern Wild" duo Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer, the story follows Ayiva and Abas, close friends from Burkina Faso determined to make it to Italy in order to find work and provide for their families back home. But even after surviving the harrowing journey — desert bandits, a treacherous sea voyage, arrest — nothing can prepare the two men for the hostility and.

A pair of sections that we’ve been covering almost since its inception, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced their selections for the New Auteurs and American Independents line-ups and we’ve got a noteworthy, eyebrow-raising sampling of award-winning items from the Cannes played hellish immigration drama Mediterranea from Jonas Carpignano to Sundance (Josh Mond’s James White) to SXSW (Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha) winners. Since Park City days, our Nicholas Bell has reviewed a good chunk of these titles, but we’ll still likely have a couple of more reviews once the festival begins. Here are the selections and jury members.

New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)

From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere

Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...

Mexico’s Kings of Nowhere wins doc prize; Thank You For Bombing wins Switzerland, Germany, Austria award.Scroll down for full list of winners

Grimur Hakonarson’s Rams (Hrútar) has won the Golden Eye for Best International Feature Film at the 11Sth Zurich Film Festival (Sept 24-Oct 4).

The film, about two estranged brothers who have to reunite to save their sheep during an outbreak of disease, is Iceland’s submission for the Oscars for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Zff’s international jury, headed by Carol producer Elizabeth Carlson, awarded the title as well as a cash prize of more than $25,000 (CHF25,000).

It continues a strong festival run for Rams, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in May before going on to screen at Karlovy Vary, Telluride and Toronto among others.

International sales are handled by New Europe Film Sales, which has sold the film to around 40 countries. Cohen Media Group handle Us distribution.

It also marks...

Award-winning Italian immigration film struggling to find distribution on director’s home turf.

Since its premiere in Cannes, Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea has won plaudits and awards almost everywhere it has been seen - and yet the film has yet to secure distribution in the director’s native Italy.

The film, picked up for the Us earlier this month by IFC/Sundance Selects, is in contention for the prestigious European Parliament Lux Prize.

It screened in Venice Days today (Sept 11) as one of the three finalists for the Lux prize alongside Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang and Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov’s The Lesson.

Mediterranea tells the story of two friends from Burkina Faso who travel across the Mediterranean to start a new life in southern Italy. The local community is hostile to immigrants and they face a very tough time in establishing a foothold in the new country.

Worldwide sales

Mexican-based Ndm, the sales arm...

Few films at Cannes were as reonant as Mediterranea, the first feature from director Jonas Carpignano. The film follows Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), two men from Burkina Faso who board a migrant boat toward Italy via Tunisia and Libya. Their boat capsizes, and they are among the lucky that make it ashore. When they finally arrive to Rosarno in Southern Italy, instead of finding a land of promised opportunities, they discover only a hostile society and blatant labor exploitation. Mediterranea is expanded from Carpignano’s short film A Chjana, based on the 2010 Rosarno race riots that shook Italy. Another character who […]...

Few films at Cannes were as reonant as Mediterranea, the first feature from director Jonas Carpignano. The film follows Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), two men from Burkina Faso who board a migrant boat toward Italy via Tunisia and Libya. Their boat capsizes, and they are among the lucky that make it ashore. When they finally arrive to Rosarno in Southern Italy, instead of finding a land of promised opportunities, they discover only a hostile society and blatant labor exploitation. Mediterranea is expanded from Carpignano’s short film A Chjana, based on the 2010 Rosarno race riots that shook Italy. Another character who […]...

Few films at Cannes were as reonant as Mediterranea, the first feature from director Jonas Carpignano. The film follows Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), two men from Burkina Faso who board a migrant boat toward Italy via Tunisia and Libya. Their boat capsizes, and they are among the lucky that make it ashore. When they finally arrive to Rosarno in Southern Italy, instead of finding a land of promised opportunities, they discover only a hostile society and blatant labor exploitation. Mediterranea is expanded from Carpignano’s short film A Chjana, based on the 2010 Rosarno race riots that shook Italy. […]...

Jonas Carpignano's Mediterranea "looks at migrant life from the perspectives of Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), two friends from Burkina Faso who arrive by boat at the Calabrian city of Rosarno and are routed into jobs at an orange grove," Wesley Morris tells us in his latest dispatch from Cannes to Grantland. "The Italian residents crack down violently on the migrants. The migrants strike back…. Films like this… can be little more than their stance," but Carpignano "avoids the zombification of realist film protagonists." We've got more reviews, plus a video interview featuring clips. » - David Hudson...

Jonas Carpignano's Mediterranea "looks at migrant life from the perspectives of Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy), two friends from Burkina Faso who arrive by boat at the Calabrian city of Rosarno and are routed into jobs at an orange grove," Wesley Morris tells us in his latest dispatch from Cannes to Grantland. "The Italian residents crack down violently on the migrants. The migrants strike back…. Films like this… can be little more than their stance," but Carpignano "avoids the zombification of realist film protagonists." We've got more reviews, plus a video interview featuring clips. » - David Hudson...

Mediterranea is a powerful neorealist punch, so loaded with prescience, so relevant to our here and now, that it practically explodes off the screen. At one point in the film, a middle class family sits down to dinner and the father asks the television playing the news, dimly lit in the background, be turned off. "Just talk of pleasant things", is all he asks. Director Jonas Carpignano might have been moved to include that scene as counterbalance, as a recognition of one of challenges his film will confront. Mediterranea is precisely about not looking away. By the time the story begins, our two leads have long been on the move. Ayiva (Koudous Seihon) and Abas (Alassane Sy) are best friends from Burkina Faso, having since left their...

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