ASTROSAMANTHA, LA PRIMA DONNA ITALIANA NELLO SPAZIO – UNA STORIA VERA

On Monday October 12^th at the MAXXI, Samantha Cristoforetti, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Italian Air Force Capitan, and flight engineer for the second long-term mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), will present the docu-film AstroSamantha, la prima donna italiana nello spazio – una storia vera. The film, directed and produced by Gianluca Cerasola, a journalist and writer of international reports, was made in collaboration with ESA, ASI and the Aeronautica Militare (the Italian Air Force).

With the narrative voice of Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini, the director follows three years in the life of Samantha Cristoforetti, from her training to her splashdown at her return from space, showing us a new side of the woman who was awarded the highest Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce, upon her return from her mission.

ONSTAGE CONVERSATION WITH JULIE TAYMOR AND SCREENING OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

On Tuesday October 13^th at the “Casa del Cinema”, American director Julie Taymor will be the guest of An onstage conversation curated by Antonio Monda, in collaboration with the United States Embassy. It will be followed by the screening of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a film adaptation of the famous play by William Shakespeare, shot in the fall of 2013 during the acclaimed theatre premiere Taymor staged with the photography of Rodrigo Pieto and the music of Academy Award-winner Elliot Goldenthal. Well-known for films such as Frida and Across the Universe and for the stage adaptation of The Lion King, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Taymor continues her extensive research and experimentation between theatre and cinema which began with Titus and The Tempest.

LA STOFFA DEI SOGNI

On Wednesday October 14^th, the MAXXI will be the venue for the screening of La stoffa dei sogni, the new film by Gianfranco Cabiddu, one of the most significant auteurs of Italian cinema, nominated for a David di Donatello Award and a Nastro d’Argento Award as Best Emerging Director for the film Disamistade. La stoffa dei sogni tells the story of a modest theatre company involved in a shipwreck with a group of dangerous organized crime figures along the coast of the Asinara, the island-prison in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Through assonance, this story develops the profound theme of the role of art in the life of man, bringing to light the universal themes of guilt, revenge, redemption, and pardon. The cast features Sergio Rubini and Ennio Fantastichini.

ERA D’ESTATE

On Thursday October 15^th, ahead of its opening, the Rome Film Fest presents Era d’estate by Fiorella Infascelli. This Roman director, who has worked by the side of Giuseppe and Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Nanni Loy, and made films that have been screened at the major international festivals, from Cannes to Berlin, from Venice to Locarno, focuses on the period when Italian judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were forced to move to the Asinara in 1985. Isolated on the Sardinian island for security reasons, it was there that they wrote the maxi-inquiry for the major mafia trial held the following year. The cast features Giuseppe Fiorello, Massimo Popolizio, Valeria Solarino, Claudia Potenza.