Italy

Director Niccoló Bruna Attending
Dust: The Great Asbestos Trial documents how asbestos use has been steadily increasing, despite a large majority of developed countries banning the known carcinogen.

Renato Zucchelli lives in the beautiful mountain farmlands just outside Milan. He is the last traveling shepherd in the Lombardy region, an area ever more consumed by urbanization. Renato has a dream: to lead his flock into Milan’s Duomo Square to meet school children who have never seen someone like him; showing them that dreams and freedom will always exist as long as there is still room to believe in a last shepherd.

Premiering at Cannes, Reality garnered director Matteo Garrone a second Grand Prix award, after his first came in 2008 for Gomorrah.

In this satirical black comedy, the easily excitable and arrogant Luciano dreams of joining the cast of Italy’s ‘Big Brother,’ but ultimately winds up alienated and jaded. The support Luciano receives from his family and community goes straight to his head, and, after a prank by his brother goes horribly wrong, his high hopes come crashing down.

After a bomb goes off at a busy downtown bank in 1969 Milan, conspiracy theories quickly mar the attempts of the police to track down the guilty parties. Based on a true story, Piazza Fontana closely follows Commissioner Luigi Calabresi, who is under constant pressure to file charges, even if it’s against an innocent man. Piazza Fontana won the Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary for its intoxicating sets and scenery as well as its restrained, emotional acting.

The deserved winner of the prestigious Lion of the Future award at the 2011 Venice Film Festival for its succinct and powerful cinematic storytelling, this compelling insider drama about life on the African fringes of Naples is set in the town of Castel Volturno, home to more than 20,000 African migrants, half of them illegals. Yussouf, a talented sculptor, is newly arrived from West Africa. Although his uncle Moses promised him a better future as an honest artisan, he instead lures Yussouf into working for him as a cocaine dealer.

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Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2012 Berlin Film Festival, Caesar Must Die follows the inmates of the high-security Rebibbia prison as they rehearse a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Critically lauded, this festival highlight is an absolute must-see.