ON THIS PAGE:
- Manas
- Selon Joy
- Seydou, Il sogno non ha colore
MANAS
Brazil/Portugal, 2024. Directed by Marianna Brennand. Screenplay: Felipe Sholl, Marcelo Grabowsky, Marianna Brennand, Antonia Pellegrino, Camila Agustini, Carolina Benevides. Starring Jamilli Correa, Fátima Macedo, Rômulo Braga, Dira Paes, Emily Pantoja, Samira Eloá, Gabriel Rodrigues, Enzo Maia. Running time 101′
After previous documentaries on the figures and artistic traditions of her native Brazil, Marianna Brennand makes her feature directorial debut with Manas, important not only for having been selected for the 21st edition of Venice Days. Thanks to this, the result of the prolonged research carried out the making of yet another doc, ‘to be filmed in the villages of the Amazon rainforest’, where the director recounts having ‘met women victims of unspeakable traumas from an early age’, arrives on the Lido. In one of these, in Marajó, the story of 13-year-old Marcielle unfolds. As she grows up, she sees her mother and sisters with different eyes. She decides to confront the system that oppresses the family and the women of the community, justifying abuse and sexual exploitation.
Mattia Pasquini
SELON JOY
France. 2024. Directed by Camille Lugan. Starring Sonia Bonny, Volodymyr Zhdanov, Raphaël Thiéry, Asia Argento. Running time 86‘.
Camille Lugan, former assistant director to Jacques Audiard in the atypical western The Brothers Sisters (2018), director and screenwriter of the shorts Karama, Karama (2014) and La persistente (2018), makes her feature debut. Selon Joy is a story set in a dull and desolate city: Joy is an orphan with a deep faith who hardly ever leaves her church. Everything changes when she meets Andriy, a young man beaten up in front of her. Joy is convinced that their paths should have been destined to cross. She will find a new life and a new self in a sudden struggle between good and evil, innocence and crime. Asia Argento and Raphaël Thiéry embody the devil and holy water.
Oscar Cosulich
SEYDOU – IL SOGNO NON HA COLORE
Italy. 2024. Direction and screenplay Simone Aleandri. Starring Seydou Sarr, Amath Diallo, Moustapha Fall, Fatou Sokhna, Arnaud Zohin, Federico Coppitelli. Running time 60′.
Seydou Sarr was catapulted from Senegal to Italy in the space of a year. He dreamed of being a footballer, but thanks to Matteo Garrone, he discovered himself as a talented actor. For his intense performance in Io Capitano, he won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for emerging actors at the last Venice Film Festival. This film also won the Silver Lion for Best Director.
In Seydou, il sogno non ha colore (Seydou, the dream has no colour ), the actor follows the path that led him from the Senegal football fields to the international stages of cinema. The film is an intimate narrative enriched by encounters with some of the greatest footballers of the Italian league. The documentary explores crucial issues such as identity, belonging and, above all, the fight against racial prejudice on football pitches, which, unfortunately, is still an aspect of discrimination today, even in our Serie A.
Oscar Cosulich
