Official Selection - Competition 2004 / Certi bambini / Italy 2004
Rosario, who lives with his sick grandmother in a shabby apartment in the suburbs, is growing up on the streets. School doesn’t interest him, and he and two friends goof around the neighbourhood trying to get hold of a little money. He knows only poverty and violence, and wants to be like the older kids who are already mixed up in crime. But contact with the local underworld brings Rosario nothing but devastating consequences.
Eleven-year-old Rosario lives in a cheerless apartment in the suburbs with his sick grandmother who spends most of the day in bed. He and a couple of friends spend time slacking off between a dive pub and the Las Vegas gambling joint. They smoke, drink and steal, imitating the worst of the adult world they see around them. The laughter that once graced their faces as children has been replaced by a queer, ambiguous smile bearing witness to myriad painful experiences. The makers of A Children’s Story (based upon the novel by Diego De Silva) have placed incidents from the boys’ lives in extensive flashbacks, mental flights Rosario embarks upon during long subway rides. With every new abrupt closing of the train doors, the boy drags us into his recent past and presents the three most influential people in his life: the admired Santino, the feared Damiano and the alluring Caterina. This fascinating film bears cruel witness to how easy it is for a troubled child to get mixed up in Naples camorra.
94 min / Color, 35 mm
International premiere
Director Andrea Frazzi, Antonio Frazzi
/ Screenplay Diego De Silva, Marcello Fois, Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani, Andrea Frazzi, Antonio Frazzi
/ Dir. of Photography Paolo Carnera
/ Editor Claudio Cutry
/ Producer Rosario Rinaldo
/ Production Pequod
/ Cast Arturo Paglia, Gianluca Di Gennaro, Carmine Recano, Emanuela Garuccio, Miriam Candurro
/ Contact Pequod, Adriana Chiesa Enterprises
Andrea and Antonio Frazzi (b. 1944, Florence) studied philosophy and have been working in the theatre, mainly in Milan, since 1972; they also work in television and film. Their television work includes the films: Impostore, La cosa sulla soglia, Diari di uomo di cinquant’anni, A Prato un giorno, Dopo la tempesta, and the miniseries La biondina, Nel gorgo del peccato, La storia spezzata, Due madri per Rocco, Don Milani: il priore di Barbiana, Come l’America and Marcinelle. Their first feature, The Sky Will Fall (Il cielo cade), came in 1999 and was awarded at, among others, the festival in Giffoni, with the Special Prize of the International Jury at the Children’s Film Festival, Berlin, an Italian Golden Globe, the Audience Prize at the festival in Villerupt, France, and the Federico Fellini Prize.
Pequod
Via Fratelli Ruspoli, 8, 00198, Rome
Italy
Phone: +39 06 884 0121
Fax: +39 06 8530 0053
E-mail: [email protected]
Adriana Chiesa Enterprises
Via Barnaba Oriani 24A, 00197, Rome
Italy
Phone: +39 06 808 6052
Fax: +39 06 806 878 55
E-mail: [email protected]
Rosario Rinaldo
Antonio Frazzi
Andrea Frazzi
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