At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Ameer Fakher Eldin to talk about “Yunan”, a film presented at the Meridiana section.

“Yunan” is a film that talks about identity and memory. Two elements deeply linked to the concept of “home”. What does “home” represent for Ameer Fakher Eldin. “I come from a place which is a bit conflicted with this matter”, says the director. “I come from the occupied Golan Heights, which was Syrian back in 1967, and since then it’s been under Israeli occupation. Growing up there felt very much like an exile. Usually we connotate it with some movement that you have to flee. In my situation I didn’t need to flee. I was displaced in my home. I’ve never been to Syria and I can’t go to it. The idea of home in this regard is complicated. I tend to suggest in my films that home could be also in our fantasy as well”.

Thanks to Mounir’s mother and the fairy tale, “Yunan” also talks about memory. But what does it mean for a person who can’t go home and can’t even go to their motherland? “I think, my main character is more feeling that his fear is not only that he lost something in the past but that he will be forgotten. The whole film started with a question: ‘Who are you when your mother forgets about you?’”.

We are living in a really dark time and talking about roots. What did Ameer Fakher Eldin feel when he heard Trump’s words about the future of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people? “Terrible, of course. This guy is just crazy. I don’t think anyone should take him seriously”, says the director. “It’s scary, but on the same impulse, I’m not surprised because the world has always been kind of torn between the north and the south. And now somehow the wrong people are in charge. And it’s funny because for this film I was inspired by the suicide letter of Stefan Zweig, which is a Jewish Austrian author who fled the World War Two from Austria. He tried London and he failed, he tried New York and he failed. He found a peaceful refuge in Brazil. Somehow the cycle is now turned. It was the north seeked refuge in the south. And now it’s somehow the opposite. When I read his suicide letter, I was inspired. This is so relevant to any odyssey of a human kind of exile”.

“Yunan” is the second chapter of a trilogy. What will the last chapter be about? “The trilogy, called ‘Home,’ started to explore the idea of displacement and the idea of home. And it starts with ‘The Stranger,’ which was mainly about a man who doesn’t want to leave his country, even though it’s in crisis and in a kind of war. He had a reason why he wanted to stay, but he was a stranger among his own people. And so he also had an existential crisis there”, says Ameer Fakher Eldin. “The second one was kind of the opposite. There’s a character in exile, unable to go home and he also has an existential crisis. The third film will be about a character who is free from all borders. He’s a free character. He’s very successful. He comes from a small village somewhere in the Middle East, but he’s free. He’s all over the world and there are no borders anymore. But he’s still nostalgic. But this time I won’t look at him as a victim. It’s important for me to close this trilogy to make sure that we look at the nostalgic not as a victim, but as a toxic presence. And this toxicity of being nostalgic is to understand that, maybe, the borders are in his head”.

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As part of the 2025 edition of the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London, Fred FM spoke to the director of the closing night film, “The Great Ambition.”

Andrea Segre revealed the motivations behind returning to this period of Italian history, particularly when Enrico Berlinguer was the leader of the Italian Communist party in the 1970s, as well as the painstaking research that went into making the film.

Beyond looking at texts, transcripts and video archive footage,  Segre also turned to other features such as “Milk” and “Malcolm X” as a source of inspiration in the way of telling his story and weaving in the archive to his fictionalised storytelling.

The director praised his star, Elio Germano, for his phenomenal incarnation of Berlinguer that went beyond something of an imitation to truly understand the politician as a way of authentically portraying him.

Finally, Segre shared his hope that returning to this period of history might help contemporary, and particularly younger audiences, regain some sense of renewed vigour in reaching for an ideal in modern-day society and “build collective dreams” once more.

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London audiences were treated to something a little different as part of the Cinema Made in Italy festival 2025: “Diva Futura,” a darkly comic, satirical look at the beginnings of the porn industry in Italy back in the 80s, courtesy of Riccardo Schicchi.

Fred Film Radio sat down with the movie’s writer and director, Giulia Steigerwalt, to hear about telling the story from the perspective of his secretary, Debora Attanasio, based on her 2013 book, “Don’t Tell Mom I’m a Secretary.”

Steigerwalt explained she was drawn to exploring this tale on screen after learning how everything about the porn studio, and Schicchi himself, was the opposite of the exploitative and degrading environment she imagined, and indeed, what is has since become.

The director also gave some insight into the roots and execution of the movie’s irreverent playful tone, one stemming from both Schicchi‘s own book and testimonials from others, describing him as a “childish, playful man”. We further heard about nailing the retro aesthetic of the era, as well as the complexity of shooting the many intimate scenes with a female gaze with care alongside an intimacy coordinator.

With a shocking statistic that nowadays, 95% of porn is violent, Steigerwalt emphasised how she hoped her feature would prompt conversation about the state of the porn industry today – and one day see it improved.

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Ahead of a screening of his movie during the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London, Fred Film Radio sat down to a chat with co-director Casey Kaufmann to discuss all things “Vittoria“.

Emerging as a kind of trilogy alongside previous films based in Torre Annunziata, Naples, “Butterfly” and “Californie” , “Vittoria” tells the real-life story of Jasmine, a hairdresser who the filmmakers met while making “Californie“. So taken with her and her tale of dreaming of wanting a daughter after having three sons, and going through the rigmrolol of adopting, that Kaufmann and his fellow director Alessandro Cassigoli not only wanted to share it on the big screen, but have Jasmine and her husband play themselves.

Kaufmann shared what it was like working with the couple cast as their own characters, and how the movie sits in a liminal space between documentary and pure fiction. He also spoke about how the pair at times could use the mise-en-scène to in some ways confront buried aspects of their relationship and past. Furthermore, we talked about the role that fate and dreams plays in Jasmine’s reality, without the film ever moving too far away from a grounded reality, and the journey the audience is taken on by following the badass, if not always readily likeable, Jasmine.

Finally, Kaufmann reflected on the place the feature has within Italian cinema as presenting a specific and personal, yet universal story about a working class Naples family, and how, although their next film will finally take them out of Torre Annunziata, they have fond memories of all they learnt about filmmaking while telling stories in the region.

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At the 2025 Cinema Made in Italy festival at London’s BFI, Fred Film Radio had the chance to speak with singer-songwriter turned filmmaker Margherita Vicario about her stunning directorial debut, “Gloria!“.

Margherita Vicario explained her two-part compulsion to share the story as autobiographical elements borne out of her desire to capture the intricacies of the creative process “inside the soul of an artist,” as well as to unearth a part of feminist history, in terms of female composers, that’s long been buried, like “dried flowers caught in the pages of history”.

We discussed how the movie mashes up genres in the sense of serving up core tropes of a traditional period drama, yet then often totally subverting them with anachronistic music, and injecting a contemporary feminist energy into proceedings, perhaps recalling the likes of Sofia Coppola‘s “Marie Antoinette“.

She further revealed how she fostered a close bond between the actors to replicate the sisterly bond the characters had within the convent, as well as having them take music classes to convincingly pull off playing the violin and piano.

Finally, Margherita Vicario shared how she wanted to balance shedding light on how female talents of the past were never given their full chance to shine under oppressive patriarchal structures, with a sense of joy, empowerment and inspiration as audiences leave the cinema.

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During the 2025 edition of the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London, Fred FM had an in-depth chat with the charming star of “The American Backyard“, Filippo Scotti.

The actor revealed how he was actually brought on last minute to take on the lead role in the gothic, noir thriller, loosely following one man’s search for a missing woman he holds an unrequited love for, by veteran of Italian cinema, Pupi Avati. With the director now into his seventh decade of movie-making, Scotti was at first a little intimidated but soon found he could collaborate and communicate honestly with the filmmaker.

Digging into the macabre nature of the story and his character, a lonely, obsessive writer, Scotti discussed the story’s theme of avoiding quick judgement of others, while the stylised sensibility of the black-and-white film not only transports its audience in terms of time period but also in the way it’s shot, heavily influenced by Avati’s love of 1940s American noir movies of Alfred Hitchcock’s ilk.

Scotti also reflected on Avati’s belief that working within a small budget is something more filmmakers should be adept at in Italy, noting, “If you build an industry, you build respect for the art.”

Commenting on the divided response to the unsettling, surreal and, at times, absurd feature out of Venice, Scotti reflected that not all movies need to be loved by everyone. He further spoke about how the title fits within his broader career, particularly building on his pivotal role in Paolo Sorrentino’s semi-autobiographical “The Hand of God“, and whether he still gets comparisons with Timothée Chalamet.

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Ahead of the 39th edition of BFI Flare, Fred FM got the lowdown on this year’s lineup from one of the festival’s programmers, Diana Cipriano.

Cipriano shared some of the highlights for this year, particularly some of the trends and key themes arising across the selection and how they reflect the current landscape for LGBTQIA+ film, for instance, parenthood in all its iterations in opening night title “The Wedding Banquet“, Rebecca Lenkiewicz‘s “Hot Milk” and “Outerlands“, about a non-binary nanny tackling trauma.

The programmer gave some of her own personal recommendations of movies that spoke to her, such as “Queens of Drama“, told in flashback, which is “funny, camp, trashy and full of earworm songs”, and “Night Stage“, offering a queer take on the erotic thriller genre, plus those that she expects to make a splash during the 10-day event at London’s BFI, like the restoration of 1983 Brazilian cult comedy movie “Onda Nova“.

We also discussed the broader landscape for queer cinema and the continuing importance of the festival as a platform for films and filmmakers in the LGBTQIA+ sphere, particularly for providing a safe space for connections to be made and conversations to be prompted.

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Jonas Odell is one of the guests of Animation cinema: AnReal, the section at the 43° Bergamo Film Meeting dedicated to animated documentaries.

As in the last decade, the interest in animated non-fictional storytelling has become increasingly evident carving out an important space for itself even within sectoral festivals such as DOK Leipzig (for documentary cinema) or Annecy (for animated cinema), the 43°BFM decided to explore the new trends of animated cinema. 

In particular, through Animation cinema: AnReal, the festival, taking place from March 8 to 16, will embark on a  journey of discovery through animated documentaries.

Along with filmmaker Alexander Lahl who will also attend the Festival, Jonas Odell will not only present his remarkable “Tussilago” but will also hold a conversation on the development of animated documentary. 

In “Tussilago”, Odell tells the story of “A”, arrested because she was the former partner of Norbert Kröcher, a West German terrorist who in 1977 was imprisoned on suspicion of planning the kidnapping of Swedish politician Anna-Greta Leijon. 

In this case, animation fosters the need to hide the woman’s identity: remaining in service, yes, but simultaneously elevating the subject matter at hand.

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Czech screenwriter and director Alice Nellis is Bergamo Film Meeting’s protagonist of Europe, Now!, the section dedicated to contemporary European auteur cinema.

Along with german Director Christian Petzold, Nellis will present, at the Festival, her complete filmography including her famous “Ene bene – Eeny Meeny”, 2000, “Tajnosti – Little Girl Blue”, 2007 and “Buko”, 2022. 

Her feature debut, “Ene bene” (Eeny Meeny, 2000), a tragicomedy exploring family relationships in a small Czech community during local elections, won the Best Screenplay award at the FAMU Festival and the bronze Rosa Camuna ex-aequo at the 18th edition of Bergamo Film Meeting. This success marked Nellis as an emerging voice in European cinema.

About her comeback at the 43rd Bergamo Film Meeting she says: “BFM marked the start, back in 2000, of my professional international career so it’s an honor to be back”

Along her career she explored, through her films and TV Series, themes like the coming-of-age, parenthood, motherhood and dysfunctional families.

The director who recently returned to TV co-writing and co-directing with “Jiří Havelka” for the miniseries “Náhradníci”(Surrogates), comments on the challenges and developments of cinema narratives and TV narratives. 

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At the 43rd BFM FRED Film Radio interviewed Christian Petzold, a leading exponent of the “Berlin School”, featured in Europe, Now!, the section of the Bergamo Film Meeting dedicated to contemporary European cinema.

Christian Petzold is the son of emigrants from East Germany and in his first short films he told the story of the changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today Europe is crossed by great divisions, what role does he think cinema can have? “Some days ago I had a panel in Berlin between an East German filmmaker and me as a West German filmmaker whose parents are immigrants. We talked about cinema and the perspective we have had on our own countries on the East and on the West side and how we wew thinking about the other side behind the wall.And I think this conversation was fantastic because we have one language, we are living in the same country, but we have totally different perspectives. Europe is something based on different perspectives and we have to be aware of these different perspectives and not to have just one”.

History has always been present in Christian Petzold‘s movies. An element through which to reflect on our past and memory. “I don’t like historical movies so much when they try to make a reenactment of something from the past. I don’t like actors who are playing Napoleon or so”, says the director. “For me the things which have happened in the past are just in our contemporary times too. I think cinema is a little bit like a city. We have old houses, new houses, we have ruins and scares, and we have contemporary times with their utopian things and their desires. My historical movies are always contemporary movies. The people from the past and the ideas of the past are a little bit like ghosts who want to come to communicate with us”.

Women often play a central role in his movies. What do they allow Christian Petzold to explore? “Some years ago, before Claude Chabrol died, I was in Venice and met him”, remember the director. “I watched an interview he had given in which they asked him why there were always female characters in his movies? He said: ‘Men are living and women are surviving. And cinema is always about surviving’. I think female characters are survivors and cinema is always interested in survivors”.

One of the directors featured in Europe, Now! at the Bergamo Film Meeting, Christian Petzold is one of the leading ones of contemporary European cinema. But when he was an aspiring director, who were the ones who inspired him? “I had lived in Sesto San Giovanni, in Milan, when I was a young student”, remember the director. “In this time one of my favorite movies was ‘La Notte’ by Michelangelo Antonioni. And in this movie he is remembering himself to the times of Neorealism, a movement where Italy, after the fascism, tried to understand who we are, what we are, where we are living, why we are living. And cinema it’s the art to understand what is happening, what we are dreaming of, what is our desire, what we have done. Neo realism is for me the most important time of cinema”. 

After “Afire”, Christian Petzold is back behind the camera for a new film that he has just finished shooting. “It’s about a young student and she is in a depression crisis. Then she has an accident with her boyfriend and he dies. And there was an older woman near this accident place. She is living in a house by her own and she takes this girl with her to her house and they are living together like a mother and daughter. But something is wrong with their relationship”.

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