FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INDIANAPOLIS — The Italian Film Festival returns to Indianapolis for a fourth year April 24 with a slate of six films running through May 3.
Indianapolis is one of 12 cities around the nation hosting the Italian Film Festival USA. The festival is a collaboration between the IU School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the School of Liberal Arts and is sponsored by the National Italian American Foundation, Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Italian Heritage Society of Indiana, as well as other local corporate and individual sponsors.
“One more year, the Italian faculty and the Department of World Languages and Cultures bring the world to our campus through the eyes of the best Italian filmmakers,” said Marta Anton, professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures. “This is quite a treat for our students and the city of Indianapolis.”
All films are presented with English subtitles and are free and open to the public.
The films will be shown in the Lilly Auditorium on the lower level of the IUPUI University Library, 755 W. Michigan St.
The schedule for the festival is as follows:
- “La Sedia della Felicità” (“The Chair of Happiness”), comedy, 6 p.m. Friday, April 24: A treasure hidden in a chair; a cosmetologist and a tattoo artist who fall in love while looking for the treasure; a mysterious priest looming over them like a threat. Rivals at first, then allies, the three of them become the protagonists of an incredible adventure.
- “Un Ragazzo d’Oro” (“A Golden Boy”), drama, 3 p.m. Saturday, April 25: Davide, son of a screenwriter, is an advertising copywriter whose dream is to pen something beautiful. But he suffers from anxiety and lack of satisfaction. When his father suddenly dies, Davide returns home to Rome where he meets a beautiful editor who wants to publish the book that Davide’s father had allegedly been writing.
- “Song’e Napule,” (“Song of Napoli”), comedy, 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26: Paco is a refined but unemployed pianist. His mother lands him a job with the police, but his total ineptitude relegates him to a judiciary warehouse. Then one day Police Commissioner Cammarota, who is on the trail of the faceless yet dangerous killer known as O’Fantasma, arrives. He needs a pianist to infiltrate the Lollo Love band, which will perform at the wedding of the daughter of the mafia boss of Somma Vesuviana.
- “La Mafia Uccide Solo d’Estate” (“The Mafia Kills Only in Summer”), comedy, 6 p.m. Friday, May 1: A story told through the eyes of Arturo, who grows up in Palermo, a fascinating yet terrifying city ruled by the mafia. It is, in fact, a love story about Arturo’s attempts to win the heart of his beloved Flora, who he considers a princess and with whom he has fallen head over heels in love since elementary school. As this tender and amusing story unfolds, Sicily’s most tragic events from the ’70s to the ’90s take place.
- “Anime Nere” (“Black Souls”), drama, 3 p.m. Saturday, May 2: The story of three brothers — the sons of shepherds with ties to the ‘ndrangheta — and their divided souls. Luigi, the youngest, is an international drug dealer. Rocco, Milanese by adoption, is to all appearances a middle-class businessman, thanks to his brother’s ill-gotten gains. Luciano, the eldest, harbors a pathological fantasy of pre-industrial Calabria. After a trivial argument, Luciano’s 20-year-old son Leo carries out an act of intimidation against a bar protected by a rival clan — the spark that lights the fire.
- “Il Capitale Umano” (“Human Capital”), drama, 3 p.m. Sunday, May 3: A winter night, on a suburban road, a cyclist is hit by a SUV. What exactly happened? The only sure thing is that this accident will change the destiny of two families, that of Giovanni Bernaschi, a top finance executive, and that of Dino Ossola, an ambitious real estate developer who is on the verge of bankruptcy. Liberally based on the book of the same name by Stephen Amidon.