Italiano
Educazione fisica by Stefano Cipani by Davide Ferrario, distributed by 01 Distribution, will be released in Italian cinemas on Monday March 16th, 2023. The film was presented in the programme of the 17th Rome Film Fest.
EDUCAZIONE FISICA
Director
Stefano Cipani
Nation
Italy
Year
2022
Duration
88′
Cast
Claudio Santamaria
Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Sergio Rubini
Angela Finocchiaro
Raffaella Rea
The parents of three students are summoned by the principal of a small-town middle school. A crime has been committed and their children are responsible, but the parents struggle to accept the truth. The school gym is transformed into a makeshift courtroom, where a ferocious trial begins in a stubborn attempt to deny and cover up the truth.
COMMENTARY
Following My Brother Chases Dinosaurs, Stefano Cipani’s second film tackles another “sensitive” subject: three children accused of a terrible act. “They’re just children”, say their parents, after being summoned to the old but still functional school gym. Angela Finocchiaro, Claudio Santamaria, Sergio Rubini and Raffella Rea play the parents, who represent a range of backgrounds, arrogances, styles and sensibilities. Giovanna Mezzogiorno is the strict principal and, as necessity dictates, a tenacious “prosecuting attorney”. Based on the Giorgio Scianna play La palestra, and adapted for the screen by the D’Innocenzo brothers, the film is a tense, closed-room drama, inspired by such courtroom classics as Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men.
STEFANO CIPANI
Stefano Cipani graduated in 2008 with a Degree in Film History and Criticism from the University of Bologna, and in 2011 he graduated in Film Direction from the New York Film Academy. After directing several shorts, in 2019 he made his feature-length debut with My Brother Chases Dinosaurs, which won the David Giovani Award and the Young Audience Award at the European Film Awards. Following that, he co-directed the TV series Fedeltà with Andrea Molaioli.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I was given the opportunity to recreate the gym entirely as I imagined it, on a soundstage in Cinecittà, and strived to make an intelligent, shocking and emotional film, as close to the audience as it would be personal. I wanted to make a no-frills classic, where everything was open to discussion. The editing was, by choice, democratic and leaves no escape for the characters. I opted for a classic mode of representation, with the framing being dictated by the emotivity of the scene. I wanted people to talk about the central theme of the film, which is currently a pressing issue, and is best expressed by the sense of responsibility that pervades yet at the same time is lacking in the film’s characters.
