David Farnor | On 28, Aug 2018

Following a successful six years, the Venice Film Festival is once again turning to the web to stream a selection of its titles online around the world.

Films from the Orizzonti, Out of Competition, Sconfini and Biennale College – Cinema strands will be available to stream Festival Scope, allowing audiences at home to discover the auteurs and films at the Venice Film Festival that represent the most innovative aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema, made by both young talents and established directors.

With a maximum capacity of 1,400 seats for each screening, the films will be streamed simultaneously with the official presentations of the films on the Lido. Digital tickets may be purchased during the month of August on the website of the Biennale www.labiennale.org and on the website www.festivalscope.com. In order to view the film of choice, the user must first register and pay for the individual ticket (€4) or the pass for 5 films (€10) which will be valid for one viewing of each film only. Each film (in the original language version with subtitles in English) will be available for streaming starting at 9pm (Italian time) on the day of the official presentation of the film on the Lido and through September 19th.

Here’s the line-up:

Memories of My Body – Garin Nugroho

Orizzonti Competition

Juno is just a child when his father abandons him in their village of Center Java. Alone now, he joins a Lengger dance centre where men shape their feminine appearance and movement. But the sensuality and sexuality that come from dance and bodies, mixed with the violent social and political Indonesian environment, force Juno to move from village to village. If on his journey Juno gets attention and love from his dance teachers, his weird aunty, his old uncle, a handsome boxer and a Warok, he still has to face by himself the battlefield that his body is becoming.

Yuva – Emre Yeksan

Biennale College – Cinema

Veysel’s wild solitary life in the woods is disrupted when the land he inhabits is sold to investors. One day, his younger brother Hasan comes from the city to convince him to leave. As the imminent threat of the eviction rapidly grows, the belated confrontation of the two brothers leads to the discovery of a magical home: A hidden universe in the heart of the forest.

The Announcement – Mahmut Fazil Coşkun

Orizzonti Competition

May 22nd, 1963. Unhappy with the existing social and political situation in Turkey, a group of military officers have planned a coup d’état to take down the government in Ankara. Meanwhile in Istanbul, their conspirators have undertaken the vital mission of taking over the National Radio station and making a formal announcement about the coup. But nothing goes to plan. Faced with a number of obstacles, including a sudden rainstorm, the absence of the radio station technician, a betrayal, the lack of feedback from Ankara and their very own insufficiency, the conspirators scramble to keep their plan on track and announce the success of the coup – that is, if the coup in the capital has taken place at all. Based on actual events and told over the course of a single night, THE ANNOUNCEMENT is a wry commentary on Turkey’s uneasy political past – and present. Biting political satire meets subtle comedy in a film that highlights the absurdity of its story without ever being anything less than dead serious.

Deva – Petra Szőcs

Biennale College – Cinema

In the small Romanian town of Deva, Kato, a teen girl living in an orphanage, gets electrocuted while drying her hair. This apparently banal event will completely turn things upside down around her. The orphanage is invaded by electricians, and a new volunteer is hired to help restore order. Kato will become infatuated by her to the point of reconsidering the way she views her world.

Unremember – Flavia Castro

Orizzonti Competition

Teenager Joana feeds her soul with literature and rock. In 1979, when amnesty is granted in Brazil, she’s forced to move with her family from Paris back to the country she barely remembers. Back in the city she was born in, and where her father was forcedly disappeared, she recovers pieces of memory from a fragmented childhood in Rio de Janeiro. Not everything is real, not everything is imagination. And as she remembers, Joana must write her own story in the present tense.

Camorra – Francesco Patierno

Sconfini

The film is a historical and socio-anthropological portrait of the provincial capital of Campania, Naples, and the organised crime that afflicts it. It is the fruit of months of rummaging through the treasures of Rai Teche, the archives of the Italian state broadcaster. Surprising vintage footage, most of it never shown before, finds a visceral connection with the original music and songs written by Meg.

CAMORRA delves into the soul of an inscrutable city. The film clips tell the story of the growth of the crime syndicate between the 1960s and 1990s: from its subordination to the Mafia, which controlled the contraband of cigarettes in Campania after the war, until the advent of Raffaele Cutolo, who unified the bands of extortionists into a single, large armed and economic power.

If Life Gives You Lemons – Ciro D’Emilio

Orizzonti Competition

Antonio is seventeen years old and has a dream: to be a footballer in a great team. He lives in a small village in the province of Campania, a place where getting away is not always that easy. What makes the situation even more complex is the wonderful Miriam, a kind and gentle, but highly problematical mother, who Antonio loves more than any other person in the world. On top of this there is Carlo, Antonio’s father who abandoned them when he was very young, and Miriam is obsessed with the idea of rebuilding her family.

All of a sudden life seems to present Antonio and Miriam with a real opportunity: a talent scout looking for promising youngsters to take to the Parma team’s Primavera. But there is a high price to pay for every dream.

Goodbye Saigon – Wilma Labate

Sconfini

They are very young and come from all over the industrial districts of Tuscany, so different from the famous hills of Chianti: the steelworks of Piombino, the port of Livorno and the Piaggio factories in Pontedera. It is the red province of “houses of the people” and the Italian Communist Party. Getting away from this region is a dream for them, but this is 1968 and everything is possible!

They receive an offer they can’t turn down, a tour in the Far East: Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore. Armed with musical instruments and a desire to sing, they set off hoping for success but find themselves in the middle of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, Le Stars tell the story of their adventure amongst American soldiers, remote jungle bases and soul music.

1938 Diverse – Giorgio Treves

Out of Competition

1938-2018: eighty years have passed since the Fascist regime’s promulgation of the racial laws. An important and unfortunately still highly relevant anniversary. Eighty years ago, the Italian people, who have not traditionally been anti-Semitic, were induced by fascist propaganda to accept the persecution of a minority that had been living peacefully in Italy for centuries.

What made this possible? And how much do we know about that moment in history today? 1938 DIVERSI sets out to describe what the implementation of those laws meant for Italian Jews and how the population, both Jewish and non-Jewish, reacted to racism and persecution.

Introduzione all’oscuro – Gastón Solnicki

Out of Competition

A man wanders the streets of Vienna, guided by the memory of a friend who has recently passed away. The vestiges of a once sumptuous empire become the setting for a cinematic elegy and a dark celebration of life.

The Man Who Surprised Everyone – Natasha Merkulova – Aleksey Chupov

Orizzonti Competition

Egor is a fearless state forest guard in the Siberian Taiga. He is a good family man, respected by his fellow villagers. He and his wife Natalia are expecting a second child. But one day Egor finds out that he has cancer and only two months left to live. No traditional medicine or shamanic magic can save him. Finally, left with no other options, he takes a desperate attempt to trick death. Egor chooses to take the identity of a woman as a way of fighting the disease. His family and the local society now have to accept his new self.

Manta Ray – Phuttiphong Aroonpheng

Orizzonti Competition

Near a coastal village of Thailand, by the sea where thousands of Rohingya refugees have drowned, a local fisherman finds an injured man lying unconscious in the forest. He rescues the stranger, who does not speak a word, offers him his friendship and names him Thongchai. But when the fisherman suddenly disappears at sea, Thongchai slowly begins to take over his friend’s life – his house, his job and his ex-wife…

Soni – Ivan Ayr

Orizzonti Competition

Soni, a young policewoman in Delhi, and her superintendent, Kalpana, have collectively taken on a growing crisis of violent crimes against women. However, their alliance suffers a major setback when Soni is transferred out for alleged misconduct on duty.

As I Lay Dying – Mostafa Sayari

Orizzonti Competition

To fulfill the last will of their recently departed father, three brothers, joined by their only sister, drive to a village in the middle of nowhere where he asked to be buried. The heat and the long journey make the experience unbearable, especially when the body begins to rot. This is the time for the eldest brother, exhausted and angry, to vent out the long-unspoken grudge against the youngest brother who has looked after the father for years.

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