After the public and critical success of Gianni Amelio’s film “Lord of the Ants”, in competition at the 79th Venice Film Festival, and the Silver Lion awarded to Luca Guadagnino for the film “Bones and All”, the film production company Tenderstories, belonging to the same group as Tendercapital, lands on the red carpet of the 17th Rome Film Festival with two films of civic commitment, two topical, emotional stories that invite us to reflect on the meaning of life, female solidarity and freedom.

KORDON

Following its philosophy of producing works by young artists or great masters, Tenderstories brings to the screens of the Rome Film Festival the first feature film by Alice Tomassini, a young filmmaker who presents a documentary on solidarity at the Roman festival. Through the lives of five women, the director recounts the solidaristic and human side that can be born, develop and take shape in the tragic nature of a war conflict such as the one between Russia and Ukraine.
The camera observes events in the first days of the conflict, those in which millions of people abandon their homeland to find refuge. It is the border between the two lands that becomes the protagonist of this journey between life and resignation, highlighting how common help and solidarity fill the very concept of humanity with meaning.

According to the young filmmaker, ‘it is a documentary that wants to raise awareness about the importance of non-violent aid, and it is an act of resistance, because by showing this film we show that doing something is not only possible, but is the right thing to do’.

FIRST WOMAN

For the second story, Tenderstories also chooses a young director, Marta Savina, who is also making her first feature film. The film portrays the strength and determination of women, telling the story of a 21-year-old woman fighting for her individuality and the freedom to determine herself as a woman and as a person.

With a choral tale set in 1960s Sicily, in which echoes the life and story of Franca Viola, the director analyses the life of a girl imprisoned in a patriarchal and male chauvinist world that does not allow refusals. It is an extremely topical and necessary story, also in the light of recent events such as those in Iran, which show the strength of gender prejudice still ingrained and ready to repress freedom. A film that also recalls closer examples, such as the life of Letizia Battaglia, the first woman photojournalist in the Palermo of the 70s, – of whom Tendercapital in 2019 curated one of the last exhibitions – forced to suffer harassment and impositions, before rebelling against that world that wanted her only as a wife and mother, to fight and become an example of redemption and freedom.

FILM FESTIVAL

The kermesse, which opens today, Thursday 13 April, and will end on the 23rd, promises to be a festival full of novelties and great films. There will be a wide range of films in competition, both national and international, and there will be great anticipation on the red carpet, which will be populated by film stars and great international guests, starting with the recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Annie Ernaux, who will present the documentary “Les Années Super-8”, of which she is director together with her son David Ernaux-Briot.