Italian director Andrea D’Ambrosio will represent Italian cinema in Cuba with his documentary film on Pier Paolo Pasolini. The screening of “In the Country of Storms and Primroses” will occur on November 17 in Havana where the sixth edition of the National Meeting of Film Critics will take place. There will be two days (16 and 17 November) of debates, panels and documentary projections that above all pay homage to the Emilian intellectual on the centenary of his birth.
During the theoretical sessions, Pasolini will be one of the main subjects under discussion by scholars and film experts, an artist who stood out for his critical anti-fascist style, his ideas related to the left and communism, and for his approach to sexual issues, considered taboo for the time.
The Cuban press presented the event together with the director of the Cinematheque of Cuba, Luciano Castillo.
Pasolini’s work as a screenwriter, the presence of death in his work, the influence on international cinematography, the pairing of cinema with literature: to explore these themes they will meet with Castillo, Nbarley Espinosa, Roberto Mndez Martinez, Erin Pea, Arturo Arango, Antonio Enrique Gonzalez Rojas, Astrid Santana, Alberto Garrands and Daniel Cespedes.
D’Ambrosio’s film features on the schedule of documentaries that also include: “Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Poet on the Beach” by Pite Pias e Jorge Ortiz de Landzuri; “The Young Corsair-Pasolini in Bologna” by Emilio Marrese.
D’Ambrosio’s film is a mosaic of testimonies from students and those who knew and loved him. “To truly understand Pasolini’s work, one must start from the beginning. From the places of the poet’s childhood and adolescence. Casarsa, Versuta, Friuli,” says D’Ambrosio.
He adds, “It’s probably the most complete contribution to the Friulian cultural universe that nurtured Pasolini and contributed to his true formation, a film that I care a lot about, a narration made with people, a collage of interviews with students and friends of that important historical period.”
D’Ambrosio was born in Roccadaspide in 1975, studied directing and screenwriting with Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Ettore Scola, Florestano Vancini and Ugo Pyrrhus. He has made numerous documentaries and has won multiple prestigious awards.
