FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Rodrigo Plá, co-director of the film El Otro Tom.

A conversation with Rodrigo Plá, co-director with Laura Santullo of El Otro Tom, presented in the Orizzonti section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. The director talks with us about some of the themes of the movie, including theme of the excessive use of psychiatric medicines in childhood, the events in his personal life that prompted him to tell this story, the casting and more.

El Otro Tom: Elena is a single mother dependant on Social Services. Her son Tom has behaviour issues and is stigmatised at school as a ‘problem child’. An absent father further complicates their difficult relationship. Tom is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and given psychiatric medication, but a strange accident alerts his mother as to their side effects. When she refuses to continue administering the drugs to him, Social Services threaten to take Tom from her.

The post Rodrigo Plá – El Otro Tom #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Nadine Labaki, actress of the film Costa Brava.

A conversation with Nadine Labaki, history-making Lebanese filmmaker and actress in the Mounia Akl’s feature directorial debut Costa Brava, presented in the Orizzonti Extra section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. In this interview, Labaki talks about the similarities between the character she portays in the film – a music star who retreats to the wild with her family – and her own life and her collaboration with Akl. She also talks about her concerns with the current situation in Lebanon, including the recent tragedies and environmental issues, and shares whether she believes that art can help actuate change.

Costa Brava: The free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution of Beirut by seeking refuge in the utopic mountain home they have built. But unexpectedly, a garbage landfill is built right outside their fence, bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the trash rises, so do tensions between leaving or resisting, threatening their idyllic home and family unity.

The post Nadine Labaki – Costa Brava #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST |Matt Micucci interviews Teemu Nikki, director of the film The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic.

A conversation with Teemu Nikki, director of The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic. The film was presented in the Orizzonti Extra section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. It follows a blind and disabled, who decides to travel to meet the woman he loves in person for the first time. In this interview, Teemu talks about the movie and also about the collaboration with Petri Poikolainen, an actor with multiple sclerosis. He also talks about the intensity of the film and its style, which sees its protagonist the focal point of attention and aims to see the story from a blind man’s perspective.

The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic: An intense movie, shot from a blind man’s perspective. An atypical action/thriller film about a man who has to go through hell to reach his loved one. Jaakko is blind and disabled, tightened to his wheelchair. He loves Sirpa. Living far away, they have never met in person, but they meet every day over the phone. When Sirpa is overwhelmed by the shocking news, Jaakko decides to go to her immediately despite his condition. In any case, he just needs to rely on the help of five strangers in five places: from home to taxi, from taxi to station, from station to train, from train to taxi and finally from taxi to… her.

The post Teemu Nikki – The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Gábor Fabricius, director of the film Erasing Frank.

Gábor Fabricius stops by our Venice studio booth to tell us his transition from writer, to short filmmaker and eventually feature filmmaker with his debut Erasing Frank, here in Venice at the International Critics’ Week. Erasing Frank is a timeless story where the weapons of political oppressions are laid bare; a reminder to never give up – and always be alert.

Erasing Frank:1983, behind the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe in Budapest. Frank is the charismatic singer of a banned punk band that carries the voice of their generation against a totalitarian regime. Taken by the police psychiatric hospital in an attempt to silence him, Frank will sacrifice everything to resist.

To discomer more about the film, click here.

The post Gábor Fabricius – Erasing Frank #SIC36 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST |Matt Micucci interviews Laurynas Bareisa, director of the film Pilgrims.

A conversation with Laurynas Bareisa, director of Pilgrims, presented in the Orizzonti section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. The film talks about a man and a woman’s investigation into the final hours of someone close to them, before he was brutally murdered. In this interview, Bareisa talks about some of the film’s main themes, including trauma and closure, as well as the spiritual dimension to its investigative structure and more.

Pilgrims: Indre and Paulius haven’t kept in touch lately; but as his foot is in a cast, she agrees to drive him out to a small town near the airport, where his brother and her boyfriend died. That evening they survey the air terminal where Matas arrived on a late flight. They go into a restaurant to ask for Ieva, who no longer works there. Paulius retraces Matas’ steps through the restaurant to a table where he and Vytenis got into an argument. Next morning an old lady shows them around a big family house for sale but refuses to follow them into the cellar, where they try to line up how the forensic photos on Paulius’ phone were taken. As they emerge, the old lady’s grandson, Jurgis, recognizes them. She kicks them out; but not before Paulius breaks the wing mirror off her car. Martynas arrives to sell a silver grey Audi. Paulius agrees to buy it only after he finds out what it is like to be locked in the trunk, as his brother had been. When they find Ieva working in a furniture store, Paulius demands to know why she did not call the police. The police arrive to arrest him for damaging the old lady’s car. Ieva tells Indre she witnessed what seemed to be only a typical bar fight.

The post Laurynas Bareisa – Pilgrims #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Michel Franco, actors of the film Sundown.

Michel Franbco talks with angelo Acerbi about his film Sundown, in Competition at the 78th edition of Venice Film Festival.

Sundown: From writer-director Michel Franco comes a simmering, suspenseful sharp jolt: Alice and Neil Bennett are the core of a wealthy British family on vacation in Acapulco with younger members Colin and Alexa until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, surprising tensions rise to the fore.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Michel Franco – Sundown #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Isabel Sandoval, director of the film Shangri-la.

Isabel Sandoval comes back to Giornate Degli Autori with a short film included in the series Miu Miu Women’s tales. Shangri-la is a story of inclusion and acceptance, two issues Isabel cherishes and fights for. Lovely as usual, she talks about the reason of the film and the connection of its subject with the philosophy of the fashion brand that promotes the programme the short film is part pof.

Shangri-la: It’s California, during the Great Depression. A woman is confiding her most intimate thoughts in a church confessional, while the man on the other side listens silently and intently. But this is no ordinary religious ritual for seeking salvation. The woman – a second generation Filipino farmhand – is rapt in roleplay reverie, her sensuous words aimed at her white American lover, during a historic period when such interracial relationships were forbidden by state law. The confession box transforms into a romantic time machine, ecstatic and melancholic, traveling into alternate futures. She manifests as multiple, dazzling women, and they can love freely.

The post Isabel Sandoval – Shangri-la #Giornate2021 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST |Matt Micucci interviews Kaltrina Krasniqi, director of the film Vera Dreams of the Sea.

A conversation with Kaltrina Krasniqi, director of Vera Dreams of the Sea, presented in the Orizzonti section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. The film revolves around a middle-aged woman named Vera and the bitter dispute over a house following the sudden death of her husband. In this interview, Krasniqi talks about the personal story that inspired the movie, her observations on the role of women in Kosovar society, casting lead actress Teuta Ajdini Jegeni in the role of Vera and more.

Vera Dreams of the Sea: Vera is a middle-aged sign language interpreter, who leads a well-structured life: a wife to a renowned judge, a supportive mother, and a caring grandmother. Her serene life is disrupted by her husband’s suicide followed by an unwelcome, menacing parade of men who claim to have ownership over their village family house. When the tendrils of an underworld scheme begin to surface, Vera’s world will face danger and seem ready to collapse. Fear and mistrust will force Vera to take the family’s fate into her own hands.

The post Kaltrina Krasniqi – Vera Dreams of the Sea #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Arsalan Amiri and Ida Panahandeh, director and co-writer of the film Zalava.

A conversation with Arsalan Amiri and Ida Panahandeh, respectively director and co-writer of Zalava, the Iranian film presented in the International Critics’ Week section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. In this inteview, they talk about the central themes of superstition and tradition, as well as the troubles of the failure to communicate, and the start of their beginning of their creative partnership, which has lasted 20 years. Amiri also talks about the messages of his movies, making an observation on the fact that the film is as profound as it is entertaining.

Zalava: 1978, in a small village called Zalava, villagers claim that a demon is among them. A young sergeant who investigates the claim crosses paths with an exorcist attempting to evict the demon from the village. He arrests the exorcist on charges of fraud, but suddenly finds himself stuck in a cursed house with his lover. The villagers who believe they are both possessed by the demon, decide to kill them.

The post Arsalan Amiri, Ida Panahandeh – Zalava #SIC36 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Ilaria Gomarasca interviews Monica Stan and George Chiper-Lillemark, directors of the film Imaculat.

A conversation with Monica Stan & George Chiper-Lillemark, directors of the Romanian film Imaculat settled in a rehab center and based on Monica Stan’s personal experience. Imaculat won the Lion of the Future and the 18th Giornate degli Autori Directors Award.

Imaculat: When young Daria enters rehab to kick the drug habit her first love left her with, her perceived innocence saves her from the sexual advances of the mostly male junkies inside and gains her their protection. Suddenly thrown into the spotlight and enjoying the attention, Daria soon finds out that special treatment comes at a great price.

The post Monica Stan, George Chiper-Lillemark – Imaculat #Giornate2021 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.