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Venice Film Festival · 2024

Venice Film Festival 2024

Orizzonti

Programme

19 films · 5 reviews

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Aïcha

After a woman is the sole survivor of a bus crash she reinvents herself.

(Country: France, Tunisia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Italy; Year: 2024; Director: Mehdi Barsaoui; Stars: Nidhal Saadi, Yassmine Dimassi, Fatma Sfarr, Hela Ayed)

Carissa

A young woman grapples with the expectations of her grandmother.

(Country: South Africa; Year: 2024; Director: Devon Delmar, Jason Jacobs; Writer: Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar; Stars: Gretchen Ramsden, Elton Landrew, Hendrik Kriel, Deidré Jantjies, Wilhelmiena Hesselman, Collin Fredericks, Edgar Valentyn, Herchell Cloete, Gladwin van Niekerk, Woudine Dirkse, Kaylin Fredericks, William Jacobus Zass, Grant Waldeck, Rebekka Wynand, Maria Tamboer)

Diciannove

An investigation of the life of a 19-year-old boy and an analysis of his life and his being a student.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2024; Director: Giovanni Tortorici; Writer: Giovanni Tortorici; Stars: Manfredi Marini, Vittoria Planeta, Luca Lazzareschi, Zackari Delmas, Dana Giuliano)

Familiar Touch

Review preview for Familiar Touch

The writer/director also zeroes in on the importance of physical contact for Ruth - something concrete in a world that is now full of things that she can’t always grasp.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Sarah Friedland; Writer: Sarah Friedland; Stars: Kathleen Chalfant, Andy McQueen, Carolyn Michelle, H Jon Benjamin, Katelyn Nacon, Alison Martin, London Garcia, Joahn Webb, Sandy Velasco)

Full review

Feeling Better (Nonostante)

Review preview for Feeling Better

While the end result doesn’t fully deliver on its excellent premise, being a little too light of touch, heavy on montage and spare in its scripting, this is nevertheless one of the more accessible cinematic takes on existentialism.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A hospitalised man finds his life shifting after the arrival of a new patient.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2024; Director: Valerio Mastandrea; Writer: Enrico Audenino, Valerio Mastandrea; Stars: Valerio Mastandrea, Justin Korovkin, Dolores Fonzi, Lino Musella, Claudia Della Seta)

Full review

Happyend

Review preview for Happyend

A thoughtful, shrewd examination of the impact of rapidly developing technologies.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Best friends Yuta and Kou are on the brink of graduating from high school in a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake casts a shadow over daily life.

(Country: Japan, US; Year: 2024; Director: Neo Sora; Writer: Neo Sora; Stars: Makiko Watanabe, Ayumu Nakajima, Shirô Sano, Yukito Hidaka, Hayato Kurihara, Shina Peng, Kilala Inori, Arazi, Yûta Hayashi, Pushim)

Full review

Happy Holidays

Four interconnected characters share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations, and cultures.

(Country: Germany, France, Italy, Qatar, Palestine; Year: 2024; Director: Scandar Copti; Writer: Scandar Copti; Stars: Manar Shehab, Wafaa Aoun, Merav Mamorsky, Toufic Danial, Raed Burbara, Neomi Memorsky, Shani Dahari, Sophie Awaad, Imad Hourani, Rana Matar, Michal Dasberg, Juhaina Habib Kandalaft, Issam Hadad, Amal Harb, Riyad Houssari)

Marco (Marco, The Invented Truth)

Based on true events, the film explores the story of a concentration camp deportee from Spain who turned out to be fictitious.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño; Writer: Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño, Jorge Gil Munarriz, Jose Mari Goenaga; Stars: Eduard Fernández, Nathalie Poza, Sonia Almarcha, Chani Martín, Fermí Reixach, Daniela Brown, Vicente Vergara, Jordi Rico)

Mistress Dispeller

Review preview for Mistress Dispeller

A film that is built upon patience and which takes a philosophical rather than judgmental stance.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband's affair.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Elizabeth Lo; Writer: Charlotte Munch Bengtsen, Elizabeth Lo)

Full review

My Everything (Mon Inséparable)

Mona is a woman in her 60s who is at a point in her life where she wants to start caring for herself. But when her disabled son is unexpectedly having a baby, she has another responsibility to deal with.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Anne-Sophie Bailly; Stars: Laure Calamy, Geert Van Rampelberg, Pasquale D'Inca, Rébecca Finet, Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, Charles Peccia, Julie Froger)

The New Year That Never Came

Six seemingly disconnected lives intersect in unexpected ways as Romania stands on the brink of resolution.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2024; Director: Bogdan Muresanu; Writer: Bogdan Muresanu; Stars: Adrian Vancica, Nicoleta Hâncu, Emilia Dobrin, Iulian Postelnicu, Manuela Harabor, Victoria Raileanu, Razvan Vasilescu, Mihai Calin, Gabriel Spahiu, Ioana Flora, Elvira Deatcu, Nicodim Ungureanu, Vlad Ionut Popescu, Andrei Miercure, Marian Râlea)

Of Dogs And Men

Drama set in the wake of the Hamas terror attack.

(Country: Italy, Israel; Year: 2024; Director: Dani Rosenberg; Writer: Ori Avinoam, Dani Rosenberg, Itai Tamir; Stars: Ori Avinoam, Nora Lifshitz, Yamit Avital)

One Of Those Days When Hemme Dies

One ordinary day in the life of a poor, unsuccessful city boy working hard to dry and salt tomatoes under the boiling summer sun.

(Country: Turkey; Year: 2024; Director: Murat Firatoglu; Stars: Murat Firatoglu, Gunes Sayin, Ali Barkin, Salih Tasci, Sefer Firatoglu, Firat Bozan, Çetin Firatoglu)

Pavements

An hybrid examination of the iconic 1990s indie band.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Alex Ross Perry; Writer: Stephen Malkmus, Alex Ross Perry; Stars: Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kanberg, Joe Keery, Jason Schwartzman, Fred Hechinger, Zoe Lister-Jones, Nat Wolff, Tim Heidecker, Logan Miller, Griffin Newman, Michael Esper, Kathryn Gallagher, Violette Trotter, Keith Poulson, John El-Jor)

Pooja, Sir

Review preview for Pooja, Sir

The close proximity camerawork employed by Sheldon Chau, coupled with the fact that the frame is often reduced by foreground intrusions, lend Pooja, Sir an intense and often claustrophobic feel.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
When two boys are kidnapped in a border town in Nepal, Detective Inspector Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to solve the case. However, upon her arrival, the brewing political unrest and violent protests throw her off course, compelling her to seek help from Mamata, a local Madhesi policewoman.

(Country: Nepal, United States, Norway; Year: 2024; Director: Deepak Rauniyar; Writer: Deepak Rauniyar, David Barker, Asha Magrati; Stars: Asha Magrati, Nikita Chandak, Dayahang Rai, Aarti Mandal, Reecha Sharma, Bijay Baral, Ghanashyam Mishra, Gaumaya Gurung, Pashupati Rai, Niraj Shrestha, Parmeshwor Kumar Jha)

Full review See: Husband and wife team Deepak Rauniyar and Asha Magrati on their latest collaboration Pooja, Sir

Quiet Life

Sweden, 2018. A mysterious syndrome affecting refugee children is sparking concerns among doctors and politicians. This drama follows a family affected.

(Country: France, Greece, Germany, Estonia, Sweden; Year: 2024; Director: Alexandros Avranas; Writer: Stavros Pamballis, Alexandros Avranas; Stars: Chulpan Khamatova, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Naomi Lamp, Miroslava Pashutina, Eleni Roussinou, Lena Endre, Alicia Eriksson, Kristjan Üksküla)

Stranger Eyes (Mo Shi Lu)

After the mysterious disappearance of their baby daughter, a young couple begins to receive strange videos, realising someone has been filming their daily life.

(Country: Singapore, Taiwan, France, United States; Year: 2024; Director: Siew Hua Yeo; Writer: Siew Hua Yeo)

The Ties That Bind (L'Attachement)

A young single father striving to find the strength to love. A feminist librarian, single by choice, who has decided not to become a mother. A six-year- old child seeking a place in a new family structure.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2024; Director: Carine Tardieu; Stars: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Pio Marmaï, Raphaël Quenard, Vimala Pons, César Botti)

Wishing On A Star

Documentary. Luciana, a Neapolitan astrologer, has a method to make her clients’ wishes come true. All they need to do is take a trip on their birthday to a precise destination to be reborn under a new sky.

(Country: Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovakia, Czechia; Year: 2024; Director: Peter Kerekes; Writer: Erica Barbiani, Peter Kerekes; Stars: Luciana de Leoni D'Asparedo, Valentina Angeli, Alessandra Fornasier, Barbara Lutman, Giovanni Rugo, Adriana Vangone, Giuliana Vangone)