The Jewel

Colour, 35 mm
Italy, France, 2010, 110 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

"As with The Girl by the Lake, this story took me into the Italian provinces which, in this case, too, became silent spectators of a crime,” states Andrea Molaioli, commenting on the theme of his second feature film. The drama The Jewel, however, isn’t about a murder, but about crime as a symptom of our era. Inspired by a real case of financial scandal involving the multinational dairy concern Parmalat, Andrea Molaioli co-wrote and directed a reconstruction of the meteoric rise and precipitous fall of the major food processing company Leda, directed by prominent entrepreneur Amanzio Rastelli and his trusted right-hand man, accountant Ernesto Botta (Remo Girone and Toni Servillo). The organism of a company which enjoyed glittering success in the early 1990s is gradually poisoned by unscrupulous pragmatism and contempt for financial market regulations. Like Francesco Rosi in The Mattei Affair (1972), whom Molaioli cites as a source of inspiration, the filmmakers behind The Jewel also attempt to make a connection between a psychological analysis of their characters and their scrutiny of a serious social problem in relation to the given sociological context.

About the director

Andrea Molaioli (b. 1967, Rome) began as an assistant director and second unit director particularly on films by Nanni Moretti, Red Lob (Palombella rossa, 1989), Dear Diary (Caro diario, 1993), Aprile (1998) and The Son’s Room (La stanza del figlio, 2001). He also worked on the films David’s Summer (L’estate di Davide, 1998, dir. Carlo Mazzacurati), Father and Son (Padre e figlio, 1994, dir. Pasquale Pozzessere) and Suffocating Heat (Caldo soffocante, 1991, dir. Giovanna Gagliardo). As director he contributed to the successful TV series "I diari della Sacher” (2001) with the segment "Bandiera rossa e borsa nera.” His feature film debut The Girl by the Lake (La ragazza del lago, 2007), which was successfully screened during Critics’ Week in Venice and, among many other festivals, also at KVIFF in 2008, garnered ten David di Donatello Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor.