His latest film, L’amministratore, to open the CinemaXXI competitive section

After the success of “Cinema al MAXXI”, a programme curated by Mario Sesti which opened in September presenting film classics, previews, and documentaries, the collaboration of Fondazione Cinema per Roma and MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts continues with a retrospective dedicated to the work of director and screenwriter Vincenzo Marra. Leading to the Rome Film Festival (November 8-17, 2013, Auditorium Parco della Musica) opening, the MAXXI will host the screening of some of the most representative documentaries realized by the Neapolitan filmmaker, whose latest film, L’amministratore, will open CinemaXXI, the competition section dedicated by the Festival to new trends in international cinema.

The retrospective includes Estranei alla massa (2002), winner of the “Pier Paolo Pasolini prize”, in Competition at the Locarno Film Festival, Special Jury Mention at the Turin Film Festival; The Session is Open (L’udienza è aperta, 2006) presented at the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival and nominated for the David di Donatello as Best Italian Documentary Film; Il grande progetto (2008) in competition at the Turin Film Festival; and Il gemello (2012) screened in the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days, winner of a Special Mention at the Nastri d’Argento Awards. The four films offer an extraordinary slice of life in the city of Naples, of the stories that it describes daily, of the contradictions it embodies and the feelings of the common people, often poised between disillusion and hope. In these films, Marra has shown his great capacity to illustrate Naples and its experiences, relying on profoundly different points of view, coming into contact with people then “disappearing”, with the purpose of presenting a narration that involves the viewer and triggers reflection.

In this sense, the point of departure for Estranei alla massa is a group of hard-core football fans. “The idea was to talk about the city from the inside – explains the director. I thought that starting with the passion for football, which is so widespread and so heartfelt, would introduce me into people’s lives in the most direct way possible. As I accompanied the film to various film festivals and programmes in many countries of the world, I realized that the film was seens as a great tableau of Naples. I wanted to achieve a sense of oneness with my people so that, with great respect, I could make reality emerge without changing or influencing it. Thus I understood that this was only the first film I would dedicate to my Naples, conceived with this ‘method’”.

The Session is Open (L’udienza è aperta), a veritable document about the entire Italian judiciary system, is filmed entirely inside the criminal justice court of Naples and follows the life, in a case against the camorra, of two judges and the famous criminal lawyer Alfonso Martucci. The writer and journalist Roberto Saviano, who defined the film as a “rare little jewel”, decided to accompany Marra and the film to the Venice International Film Festival. In Il grande progetto (2008), Marra describes the regeneration of the site of the former Italsider factory at Bagnoli. “I again made a film from the inside, explains the director, following two top executives of the Bagnoli Futura company, which has been entrusted to bring ‘new life’ to the territory, and a simple worker who is materially trying to “resurrect” the area”.

And finally, in Il gemello, the Neapolitan directors brings his crew into the prison of Secondigliano to tell the story of the life of Raffaele, a twenty-nine year-old Neapolitan known as “The Twin”, who has spent most of his life behind bars. “The idea was to match him up, as the other protagonist, with the head of the penitentiary police for Raffaele’s section, Niko Manzi, says Marra. This film produced something of a “miracle”, in the sense that day after day, meeting after meeting between ‘the cop and the robber’, the hard-nosed Raffaele changed, for real”.

As previously announced his latest film L’Amministratore (produced by Gianluca Arcopinto, who collaborated with Marra on many occasions since his very debut, Tornando a casa) will open the competition for the CinemaXXI section. In this film Marra again puts the spotlight on the city of Naples, talking about the life of an administrator of apartment buildings. He spends his days between meetings, encounters and the large and small problems of everyday life. “I was able to enter people’s homes, both rich and poor, in a city, Naples, that is suffering a crisis, but remains vital, enraged, exaggerated yet always surprising – says the director . I am happy and excited, both for myself and my film, about this new experience at the Rome Film Festival”.

VINCENZO MARRA RETROSPECTIVE – November 8, 2013

Ore 10.30: Estranei alla massa, Italy, 2001, 90’

Ore 12: L’udienza è aperta, Italy, 2006, 75’

Ore 14: Il grande progetto, Italy, 2008, 71’

Ore 15.30: Il gemello, Italy, 2012, 88’

VINCENZO MARRA – FILMOGRAPHY

• Una rosa prego, 1998, 10’
• La vestizione, 1998, 8’
• Tornando a casa, 2001, 90’
• Estranei alla massa, 2002, 90’
• Paesaggio a sud, 2003, 30’
• Vento di terra, 2004, 90’
• 58%, 2005, 47’
• La piazza, 2005, 10’
• L’udienza è aperta, 2006, 75’
• L’ora di punta, 2007, 90’
• Il grande progetto, 2008, 75’
• Il gemello, 2012, 86’

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