Just a few weeks after Toronto dined on Italian food during the annual Taste of Little Italy festival comes another Mediterranean experience. The 2013 Italian Contemporary Film Festival kicks off tonight, with over 60 features, shorts and documentaries playing for 10 days across Toronto.
Kicking off with a very charming comedy, the festival reveals the best of Italian cinema and creativity, with special guests and celebrations throughout. Here are our top picks for this year’s event.
Benvenuto Presidente
Full of effusive charm, political satire and Italian irreverence, the festival’s opening night film is instantly likeable. After a few shady politicians screw up an electoral process, a warm and gregarious fisherman known as Peppino finds himself suddenly the president of Italy. His earnestness, sly humour and disregard for protocol cause chaos as the powers that be try to force him out. Peppino, however, starts to win the hearts and minds of the public as well as his staff, and he threatens to change the Italian political system forever.
June 26, 6:30 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox
Il Mundial Dimenticato — The Lost World Cup
It’s a mystery that would be hard to believe were it not a true story. In 1942, a World Cup was held in Patagonia, maybe, but there were no cameras and no documentation of the match. That was the thought, until, as the film opens, a skeleton is found during a dig, and beside this long-deceased man lies a camera. The man had been hired to film the event, and his camera holds the only known link to a historic football match that was thought long lost and forgotten.
July 1, 4:30 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox
The Resurrection of Tony Gitone
Toronto’s Little Italy is the setting for this dramatic comedy by Canadian filmmaker Jerry Ciccoritti. A failed Hollywood actor finds rejuvenation when he lands a major role. As filming is about to begin in Toronto, his family and friends throw him a party in the neighbourhood, and an evening of revelry, heartache, nostalgia and love commences in this evocative piece of cinema.
July 3, 7 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox
Reality
Having played during TIFF 2012, Matteo Garrone’s stunning drama tells the auspicious story of Luciano, a middle-aged family man seeking fame and recognition. A fishmonger with a small shop, Luciano is an idealist whose reach exceeds his modest grasp. He wishes to be on the reality show Big Brother, and while his family and friends initially support him, his quixotic nature gets the better of him, uprooting his own life and those around him.
July 5, 9:30 p.m. TIFF Bell Lightbox