Mediterranea

DIRECTOR: Jonas Carpignano  COUNTRIES: France, Italy, United States, Qatar, Germany, United Kingdom   YEAR: 2015   LANGUAGE(S): English, French, Italian   SUBTITLES: German  RUNNING TIME: 107 min  

SECTION: Previews at Cinecittà 2015

SYNOPSIS

In his debut film, Jonas Carpignano accompanies Ayiva and Abas, two refugees from Burkina Faso, on their trip across the Mediterranean. On shore, challenges await them for which there is no preparation. Rescued in a storm, they start looking for work. In Italy, they encounter a hostile climate that makes their new life difficult. They finally find work on a plantation and make friends but everything changes when violent attacks occur. Rarely has exile been told in such a physical manner as in this pertinent film odyssey.

“In the tradition of Italian Neorealism, Carpignano depicts the daily life of his heroes, who cannot be heroes and live on the poverty line. He accompanies his amateur actors with a calm hand-held camera through their parallel world of plastic, cardboard, dilapidated apartment blocks and misanthropic industrial buildings. He shows the world of the more privileged from their perspectives, which are becoming increasingly distant from one another.” (Claudia Reinhard) The film premiered at the Semaine de la critique in Cannes.

JONAS CARPIGNANO

Director and screenwriter Jonas Carpignano spent his childhood between Rome and New York before studying at Wesleyan University. His two shorts THE PLAIN (2011) and YOUNG LIONS OF GYPSY (2014) received among them the Controcampo award in Venice, the Prix Découverte of the Critics Fortnight in Cannes, a special Nastro D’Argento mention and the Grand Jury Prize at the Miami International Film Festival.

Jonas was one of the residents of the Sundance Screenwriters & Directors Lab in 2012 and received the Sundance/Mahindra Global prize. In 2012, he was one of the 25 new faces of independent cinema nominated by Filmmaker magainze.

FILMOGRAPHY

A Chjàna (2011), A Cambria (2014), Mediterranea (2015)

SCRIPT: Jonas Carpignano   PRODUCERS: Jon Coplon, Christoph Daniel, Marc Schmidheiny, Jason Michael Berman, Chris Columbus, Andrew Kortschak, John Lesher, Ryan Lough, Justin Nappi, Alain Peyrollaz, Gwyn Sannia, Victor Shapiro, Ryan Zacarias   CAMERA: Wyatt Garfield   EDITOR: Nico Leunen   MUSIC: Dan Romer   CAST: Koudous Seihon, Alassane Sy, Adam Gnegne, Mary Elizabeth Innocent

PRODUCTION: DCM, Audax Films Llc, Court 13, Good Lap Production, Hyperion Media Group, Nomadic Independence Pictures, Treehouse Pictures, Sunset Junction, Maiden Voyage Pictures, Le Grisbi Production, Good Films, Blu Grotto, Grazka Taylor Productions   WORLD SALES: NDM International Sales   GERMAN DISTRIBUTOR: DCM