Hey Joe

Based on Robert Saviano's bestselling book, this gritty Italian crime drama paints a portrait of the brutal Neapolitan crime organisation the Camorra, as seen through the eyes of Ciro Di Marzo, the obedient and self- confident right-hand man of the clan's godfather, Pietro Savastano.

A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.

Ostia, outskirts of Rome: the beach in winter. Two sixteen-year-old boys steal a scooter at 8 in the morning, then rob a store, all in time for getting to school at 9. Nader is Egyptian, but was born in Rome. Stefano is Italian and his best friend Brigitte, Nader’s girlfriend, is also Italian, but for this very reason Nader’s parents are against the match, and Nader runs away from home. The film describes a week in the life of a teenager who tries to subvert the values of his own family. Torn between his Arab and Italian identity, audacious and in love, like the hero of a contemporary fairy tale, Nader will have to put up with the cold, the loneliness, life on the street, hunger and fear, the flight from his enemies and the loss of his friends, before he can really understand who he is.

Young and in prison for theft, Daphne falls in love with Josh, another inmate. Their love story exists through secret letters and fleeting conversations.

Rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein (1905-1989) was head of the Jewish Council of the artificial ghetto of Terezín (Theresienstadt in German). The Nazis made him representative of the community destined for extermination. Victim of a tragic contradiction, after the Liberation he was tried and absolved from the accusation of collaborating with the Nazis; he moved to Rome, where he was ostracized by the Jewish community until he died. His son Wolf devoted his life to redeem his image, trying to paint a more complex picture of the role his father played in Terezín. The film reconstructs through the conversation between Wolf and the psychoanalyst David Meghnagi a son's relationship with the memory of his father, between the acceptance, the denial, and the thematization of a common and familiar tragedy.

Michele and Lorenzo, two brothers, live alone in a large house just outside Rome left to them by their father, Dario, who disappeared twelve years earlier. One day, however, they receive surprising news: the house has been sold, meaning Dario is alive. The brothers decide to go looking for him; following a trail of information, they arrive in Marrakech, Morocco, where a complex yet rewarding process of family reunification awaits them.

The Istituto Luce turned ninety in 2014, its decades-long history intertwined with that of Italy itself, through cinema and that unique treasure trove of images known to all as the Luce Archives. To celebrate its anniversary, some of the most acclaimed rising filmmakers in Italy were invited to make a small film, with each director selecting ten minutes of footage from the archives, out of the thousands of hours of footage to be found there. The result is an album full of different narratives.

The Lion is the symbol of Venice, but also of courage: that of a city and - in our case - of a Film Festival and a media event that did not give up and stubbornly "wanted" to be realized in spite of the world around, of Codiv19 and the great uncertainty that dominates the global situation. In an 'abnormal' city, never seen before so deprived of tourists and the general chaos that - in general - characterizes it between the end of August and the beginning of September, our story begins, made up of a Venice never seen before and - therefore - little or nothing told cinematically. A crescendo of emotions, which between stage and behind the scenes, between what passes in front of the screen and what remains behind involves the viewer in depth.

Three foreign teenagers—or, more precisely, second-generation Italians—cast caution to the wind and express their aspirations, affection, humor, and anger in front of the camera. Anticipation, resentment, dreams, irony, and isolation serve as a defense mechanism.