After his first feature film Una Fémina, presented at the Berlinale in 2022, Francesco COSTABILE strikes again very hard with his second feature film FAMILIA, dedicated to domestic and marital violence against women, a topical issue, where for almost two breathless hours the viewer holds his breath, without feeling the slightest ounce of boredom until the final tragic epilogue.
Familia is adapted from the book Luigi Siria, – « Non sarà sempre così » and was presented at the « Venice Film Festival » in the Orizzonti section where it was distinguished by obtaining the Best Actor Award awarded to Francesco Gheghi, for the interpretation of his role as Luigi, the son.
SYNOPSIS
Licia (Barbara Ronchi) lives with her two young adult sons, Luigi (Francesco Gheghi) and Alessandro (Marco Cicalese).
But the family’s serenity is threatened by the reappearance of Franco (Francesco Di Leva), their husband and father who has just been released from prison.
After ten years of not showing up, he would like to return home where he created a very violent climate. Alessandro, who remembers very well the blows that rained down on Licia, refuses to see him and argues with Luigi who meets him several times.
He is their father, after all! Luigi is a little adrift, he hangs out with young neo-fascists and shows a certain attraction to the violence of this environment. When Franco comes to take back what he considers his place in his home and his old habits, the confrontation is latent…
“Familia is a dark melodrama that touches on various languages typical of genre cinema: from psychological thriller to horror cinema to films with social themes.
This contamination comes from my desire to experiment, to involve the viewer, to go deep and make my story universal. Cinema, as a means of experience, allows us to know inaccessible microcosms, to dissect emotions, to open the story to a complexity of visions and thoughts.
Familia pursues this objective: to tell the story of violence, in particular psychological violence, to show the deep wounds that mark childhood forever”, Francesco Costabile.
Director’s biography
Francesco Costabile (1980, Cosenza), after artistic training in Bologna, he made his first short film in 200, « La sua gamba, » awarded the following year at the Bellaria Film Festival. He then studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and made two short films there, « L’armadio » (2004) and « Dentro Roma » (2006), « Nastro d’argento » for best short film. In 2019 he made « In un futuro aprile », a documentary on the youth of Pier Paolo Pasolini. In 2017, he created with Lucio Massa the queer and post-porn film festival « Hacker Porn Film Festival » in Rome. Una femmina is his first feature film, presented at the Berlinale 2022. Familia (2024), his second feature film, is presented in Venice in the Orizzonti section (Best Actor Award to Francesco Gheghi).
Debate meeting between the director Francesco Costabile and the Villerupt public at the Villerupt City Hall after the screening of his film FAMILIA.
FAMILIA received the Amilcar Audience Award at this 47th edition of the Villerupt Film Festival.
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