No less than nine “Italian Oscars” have gone to director Francesco Munzi’s film Black Souls, selected by Art Film Fest director Peter Nágel for the festival’s European Corner section. The quasi-western saga of a Calabrian criminal family cleaned up at the 59th David di Donatello Awards, winning nine out of its 16 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Script.
Art Film Fest audiences will be able to see the outstanding film as early as Saturday 20 June at the ODA Festival Cinema, and on 25 June at Prameň Cinema.
The story begins in the Netherlands and passes through Milan on its way to Calabria, amid the peaks of the Aspromonte – the places where everything begins and ends. It is a saga of three brothers, three disparate souls, the sons of a goat herder and members of the ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia. Luigi, the youngest, is a drug dealer. Rocco lives in Milan and is a successful, if crooked businessman. Luciano, the oldest, is an eccentric goat herder, entertaining dreams of preindustrial Calabria. Leo, his 25-year-old son, represents the lost generation, devoid of identity, nourishing nothing but hatred in himself. In an act of immature rashness, he unfurls a fateful spiral of family tragedy…
Black Souls won four prizes at Venice, including the Pasinetti Award for Best Film.
