Venice films to travel to Beijing and Shanghai

The Biennale, headed by Paolo Baratta under the film festival’s artistic direction of Marco Mueller have renewed the cycle, which this year adds Shanghai to its two-city stop. The films will be accompanied by Solitude Of Primary Numbers director Saverio Costanzo and leading Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, both who were featured in the last edition of the Venice Film Festival.

The films to be screened in the two Chinese cities from Dec 9-12 include Orizzonti title Malavoglia by Pasquale Scimeca, which follows a family of fishermen; Controcampo Italiano winner 20 sigarette by Aureliano Amadei a recounting of the true life attack on Italian military personel in Nassiriya, Iraq which killed 20 soldiers. From Dec 16-19, Costanzo’s Solitude Of Primary Numbers, that was in competition in Venice, will be screened.

Later, during the last week of March 2011 – the screening of Mario Martone’s three-and-a-half Italian re-unification drama We Believed (Noi Credevamo) will be screened as part of the same programme.

The screenings are organized by the Biennale as an cultural outreach and in conjunction with the Italian Institute of Culture in Beijing.

In past years, under Marco Mueller’s artistic direction, Venice has been cultural envoy via various projects. Venice films were first sent to New York, London, Paris and Tokyo with The Secret History Of Italian Cinema programme, presented in 2004, while in 2006 and in 2010, Venice in Moscow was programmed. Finally, Venice Italian Cinema was sent to Brazil’s major cities from 2005-2010.