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Eh bien, once again we made it to the last day of Concorto. However, we will try to send sadness away with a day full of twists and turns. At 6pm at Palazzo Ghizzoni Nasalli, don’t miss the screening of the short films edited during the workshop “Audiovisiva” curated by Tomás Sheridan which took place this week.
At 9pm, we will go to Spazio Rotative in Piacenza (Via Benedettina, 66) for the closing ceremony during which we will screen the movies “Flowers and Bottoms” and “Tierra Virgen” by the jurors Christos Massalas and Giovanni Aloi respectively (find the reviews below). Next up, the videoclip of “Una donna che conta” by Myss Keta edited by the juror Simone Rovellini. Later we will reveal the winners of this edition and we will screen their films! As is tradition, every member of the editorial staff of Asino Vola awarded the Golden Donkey to the best short film according to them. You can find our opinions below!
We will end on a high note with the interview to Heikki Ahola, the great director of “Sex at the ski centre” and to Jonatam Schwenk, director of the animation film “Sog”. Last but not least, special thanks to all of you who read our blog and followed us during this intense edition of #Concorto2018! Keep following us during the year for more reviews and reports on festivals all over Europe!

Flowers and Bottoms – Christos Massalas
as seen by Margherita Fontana

After having been awarded last year by the young jury for his Copa Loca, Christos Massalas comes back to Concorto as a Jury member with his “Flowers and Bottoms” (2016). This 6 minute short film is a surreal and sensual little gem, literally a blooming of flowers and bottoms. Through a
playful atmosphere, Massalas stages a romantic relationship mediated by the screen: Flowers and bottoms is actually a film-in-the-film watched by an anonymous character whose we see only the back of his head. Reflecting upon the esthetic nature of human relationships in post-medial age,
the director decomposes the gaze addressed to this unnamed gift thrown into the ether. At the border with video art.

Tierra Virgen – Giovanni Aloi
as seen by Sofia Brugali

This brief documentary film transports us in campesinos’ Perù in which a peaceful revolution, though not free from violence, is taking place: the agricultural conversion through the association of producers in cooperatives. However it is not easy to quit the business of coca, supported by drug trafficking, as we can learn from the story of a small family of growers, in which the father Eusebio decides to hide the banned crop in sugar cane fields against the will of his wife Angelica. The case of their son is marginal but equally important: he dropped out school to help his parents, but he keep peeking at classes through the window when he has to go to the village and get the water. In less then fifteen minutes, Giovanni Aloi tells us about Peruvian rural society, on the line between tradition, illegality and desire for change.

Sofia Brugali – Golden Donkey and Mention

 

Because I am fond of stories in which love blossoms and I felt in love with this tale of the end of a relationship. Beacuse of its cruel and marvelous honesty. Because there is poetry in the perfect balance of words, reality and animation. Because it filled me with emotions and this deep feeling comes back every time I think about this short film. For all these very personal reasons, my Golden Donkey goes to Gros Chagrin (You will be fine) by Céline Devaux. I feel compelled to give a special mention to Heikki Ahola’s twisted brilliance, with his Sex at the Ski Center. Just a few words: thank you.

Margherita Fontana – Golden Donkey and Mention

I award with my personal Golden Donkey Matria by Alvaro Gago for its ability to give a political overtone to a personal drama. But, most of all, for having described in a faithful way what it means to be a woman.

Yorgos Kostianis – Golden Donkey and Mention

There were many different films that tugged at my heartstrings this year. Negative Space hit a bit too close to home because of a similar luggage-preparation bond I share with my mother, Gros Chagrin hit even closer so, due to themes of love and disillusion that we can all, more or less, relate to; while Min börda urged me to contemplate on my existential angst from a simply hilarious standpoint. There was a film, however, that hit were it hurts the most. A film that delved into what we go to the movies to forget about. That film was David Krippendorff’s Kali. Hiam Abbass takes the stage, reincarnated as a vengeful goddess, delivering a combustive monologue reflecting the sad state of affairs and all the different shades of oppression dividing our generation.

Carlotta Magistris – Golden Donkey and Mention

 

This year my Golden Donkey goes to Gros Chagrin, a fine short movie by Celine Deviaux and winner at the last Venice Film Festival. The French director’s delicacy in combining pictures of a couple with a stifling intimacy with an animation which seems to go beyond the characters’ minds showing the sentimental pain derived from the end of a love story. Such features create a movie which can speak to the gloomiest part of the heart with a penetrating and universal language. Special mention to Hector Malot, by the Greek Jacqueline Lentzou, crossing the last day of the year of a girl fighting with her family and sentimental drama from a personal and intimate point of view.

Elena Saltarelli – Golden Donkey and Mention

 

This year my Golden Donkey goes, without second thoughts, to Negative Space the French short film animated by Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata. This work admirably combines form and content, giving us a product with an impeccable and touching rhythm. Far from being a mere exercise in style, it analyzes a father-and-son relationship where they talk when is needed and they are silent in the right moments. Everything is in its place, everything is well-ordered and the chaos that seethes under the surface is conveyed through an exaggerated methodicalness.
The special mention goes to Vihta, the Belgian comedy directed by François Bierry. This work has been in my heart ever since I saw it during the preselection, because it’s the kind of comedy you would never expect, a true breath of fresh air. Although it may seem a controversial and an
outside-the-box film, it makes a good example of hidden hilarious elegance. And that is something rare in the hic et nunc of the cinematographic panorama.

Maddalena Franco (nostra indomita traduttrice) – Golden Donkey

 

I have decided to award the Golden Donkey to the short film All These Creatures by Charles Williams. I chose this short film because of the director’s decision to make a young boy talk about mental illness as he witnesses his father’s mental degeneration. Tempest, the protagonist, tells the story in a simple yet authentic and touching way: he genuinely blames his father’s suffering on a swarm of loud cicadas invading his backyard and innocently hopes that when they fly away, they’ll haul his disease with them.

Virginia Carolfi – Asinello d’Oro e Menzione

 

My Golden Donkey goes to Matria by Alvaro Gago for having realized a short that depicts, with no rhetoric at all, the key role played by women in our society since the very beginning of human history. A role unnoticed and underrestimated that allowed humanity to survive, grow and be somewhat happy.

Special Metion to Vihta by François Bierry because I happily laughed for the whole time. Bless you, François.

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