FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Jia Zhangke – director – Mountains May Depart

FRED’s Nicolò Comotti meets filmmaker Jia Zhangke at the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Jia Zhangke speaks about his last filmic endeavour: Mountains May Depart. a long journey linking past, present and future, and 3 different film formats too…

MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART (SHAN HE GU REN): 1999, Fenyang. Tao, a school teacher, is in love with Liang, who is a coal miner. But Tao brings an end to their relationship when she is proposed marriage with Jinsheng, who just became an owner of the coal mine.

Heartbroken, Liang leaves his hometown in self exile. In 2014, Liang, who lives in Handang, finds himself in a fatal illness. Lian decides to go back to Fenyang with his wife and a daughter to live his last days at his hometown. Liang meets Tao who was already divorced with Jinsheng, and lives alone…

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Jonas Carpignano – Director – Mediterranea.

FRED’s Nicolò Comotti interviews Jonas Carpignano, director of the film “Mediterranea” from the Semaine de la Critique programme of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Jonas Carpignano, here at la Semaine de la Critique with his first feature Mediterranea, reveals how life and film can become one, even today. Living with his actors in the places that would become his story, Carpignano managed to convey a story that is simply essential to watch.

MEDITERRANEA: Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent.

Ayiva adapts to life in Italy, but when tensions with the local community rise, things become increasingly dangerous. Determined to make his new situation work he attempts to weather the storm, but it has its costs.

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Stig Björkman – Director – Ingrid, in her Own Words.

FRED’s Nicolò Comotti interviews Stig Björkman, director of the documentary Ingrid, in her Own Words, presented in the Cannes Classics section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Stig Björkman reveals all the efforts and the joys of plunging his life and work into the memories of the great Ingrid Bergman. Between stardom and families, her life was dictated by a restless need of freedom.

INGRID, IN HER OWN WORDS: In 2011 director Stig Björkman met ingred Bergman’s daughter Isabella Rossellini and she suggested him to make a film about Mama. Through Isabella, Stig is able to to tell Ingrid’s stor though her own words and Images.

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John Reddy, Jashaun St. John – Actors – Songs My Brothers Taught Me.

FRED’s Matt Micucci meets John Reddy and Jashaun St. John, actors in the film Songs My Brothers Taught Me from the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

John and Jashaun are first time actors, so we ask them about what the experience of making their debut was like and how they were initially approached by the director Chloé Zhao.

We also ask them about Pine Ridge, the place where the film is set, and whether or not they recognized many of the things of the film in their everyday lives.

Having made their film debut, John and Jashaun hope to continue to pursue a career in acting, and so we take this opportunity to ask them what they would like to star in and what type of films they would like to be a part of in the future.

SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME: Songs My Brothers Taught Me is a compelling and complex portrait of modern day life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that explores the bond between a brother and his younger sister, who find themselves on separate paths to rediscovering the meaning of home. Chloé Zhao sensitively infiltrates isolated Indian Country to offer a rare, modern gaze keenly felt through the eyes of her magnetic non-professional lead actors, providing a universally resonant tale set amid the magnificent, promising wild of young generation Lakotas.

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Kent Jones – Director – Hitchcock/Truffaut.

FRED’s Matt Micucci interviews director Kent Jones, whose documentary “Hitchcock/Truffaut” was presented in the Cannes Classics section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Kent tells us about the importance of the famous interviews book Hitchcock/Truffaut among film fans, filmmakers and film students, and also shares his views on the human side of the encounter between filmmakers Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock, their relationship with each other and their mutual respect for one another.

He also talks about his choices of filmmakers for contributions to the documentary.

HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT: For half a century, this work has been a must-have item for millions of cinema lovers. in 1962, François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock shut themselves away for a week following a request by the young director of The 400 Blows 1959) to discuss the British director’s approach to filmmaking. Truffaut, who was a huge admirer of the master of suspense, took full advantage of this special encounter to ask his mentor about the secrets of his part.

The original recordings gave rise to a cult book in 1966, entitled The Cinema according to Hitchcock. The 30 hours of interviews, analyses and anecdotes recorded that week served as a basis for Kent Jones to put together a probing documentary – his fourth – based on a mix of film footage and archive photos. The American director also met ten contemporary filmmakers to discuss the work of the man behind Vertigo (1958). The film thus features Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Olivier Assayas.

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Shin Su-won – Filmmaker – Madonna

FRED’s Matt Micucci interviews Shin Su-won, director of the film Madonna from the Un Certain Regard section of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Shin Su-won talks with us about where the inspiration for her story comes from. She also tells us whether or not feminism is a driving force and a source of inspiration in “Madonna” and her work as a filmmaker in general, and even reveals to us whether or not she sees her film as provocative.

MADONNA: Hye-rim, a 35-year-old woman, finds a job at a hospital as a caregiver assigned to a quadriplegic VIP patient who practically owns the hospital. For the past 10 years, the VIP patient’s son Sang-woo has been desperately keeping him alive for money, ordering the doctors to perform several heart transplants despite recurrent heart failures.

In need of another one, Sang-woo takes a brain dead unidentified woman as a donor and asks Hye-rim to look into her background. She discovers that the woman was once a prostitute known as ‘Madonna’ who has experienced a lifetime of abuse, and that she is pregnant. In an attempt to save Madonna’s unborn child, Hye-rim goes against Sang-woo’s orders and searches for the baby’s father.

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Kim Young-min, Seo Young-hee and Kwon So-Hyun – Actors – Madonna

FRED’s Matt Micucci interviews Kim Young-min, Seo Young-hee and Kwon So-Hyun, actors of the film Madonna by Shin Su-Won, featured in the Un Certain Regard programme of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

The three actors talk with us about the characters they portrayed and the different difficulties they encounters in playing their very distinctive role in a difficult, dark and provocative film.

MADONNA: Hye-rim, a 35-year-old woman, finds a job at a hospital as a caregiver assigned to a quadriplegic VIP patient who practically owns the hospital. For the past 10 years, the VIP patient’s son Sang-woo has been desperately keeping him alive for money, ordering the doctors to perform several heart transplants despite recurrent heart failures.

In need of another one, Sang-woo takes a brain dead unidentified woman as a donor and asks Hye-rim to look into her background. She discovers that the woman was once a prostitute known as ‘Madonna’ who has experienced a lifetime of abuse, and that she is pregnant. In an attempt to save Madonna’s unborn child, Hye-rim goes against Sang-woo’s orders and searches for the baby’s father.

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Chloé Zhao – Filmmaker – Songs My Brothers Taught Me

FRED’s Matt Micucci meets filmmaker Chloé Zhao, whose film Songs My Brothers Taught Me had its international premiere at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Chloé Zhao tells us all about her role for Pine Ridge, where her film is set, and why she decided to make a film there.

We also discuss with her the representation of modern Native Americans in contemporary cinema, and the many themes which are dealt with in Songs My Brothers Taught Me.

Songs My Brothers Taught Me is also the feature directorial debut of Chloé Zhao, so we take the opportunity to ask her what it was like to make a first feature and about the different difficulties she encountered in making it.

SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME: Songs My Brothers Taught Me is a compelling and complex portrait of modern day life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that explores the bond between a brother and his younger sister, who find themselves on separate paths to rediscovering the meaning of home.

Chloé Zhao sensitively infiltrates isolated Indian Country to offer a rare, modern gaze keenly felt through the eyes of her magnetic non-professional lead actors, providing a universally resonant tale set amid the magnificent, promising wild of young generation Lakotas.

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Viktoria Tigipko – President – Odessa Film Festival.

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews Viktoria Tigipko, president of the Odessa International Film Festival, present at the 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Viktoria Tigipko talks with us about the novelties and strengths of a film festival, as well as the way in which the festival has become, especially after its last edition, an important event that has given great exposure to the people of Ukraine and the way in which the country of Ukraine is perceived abroad.

ODESSA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: The Odessa International Film Festival is an International audience film festival with focus on art-mainstream cinema held annually in the middle of the July in Odessa. Odessa International Film Festival was established in 2010 with a mission to bring high quality films from all over the world to the Ukrainian audience as well as to encourage the development of film industry in Ukraine and to restore its cinematic tradition.

Click here to visit the official website of the Odessa International Film Festival

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Dalibor Matanic – Director – Zvizdan (The High Sun).

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi meets Dalibor Matanic, director of the film Zvidan (The High Sun), features in the Un Certain Regard programme of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

1991 – 2001 – 2011 At the beginning of each decades a love story unfolds telling us a lot about what was happening in Croatia before the war started , right after and in almost present times, when forgiveness should be given and wounds should be healed.

Through wonderful performance and mesmereizing photography, the director tells us more than three love stories. And he tells us exactly what his intentions were…

ZVIZDAN (THE HIGH SUN): Three different love stories, set in three consecutive decades, in two neighboring Balkan villages burdened with a long history of inter-ethnic hatred: this is a film about the dangers – and the enduring strength – of forbidden love.

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