Sponde. Nel sicuro sole del Nord

(Sponde, In the safe Northern Sun),

a film by Irene Dionisio

Produced by Mammut Film, Vycky Film, a.titolo

Italy, France 2015, 60 minutes

SYNOPSYS

Sponde is the story of the friendships and the deep relationship that arise between the Tunisian sculptor Mohsen and the Italian gravedigger Vincenzo. One day Mohsen, on the seaside of Tunisia, looking for some materials for his beach sculptures, finds a human body. Without questioning it, he decides to give to the unknown corpse a worthy burial, causing controversy in his community and invoking the rage of Ben Ali’s supporters. One day, on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, in Lampedusa, Vincenzo, arrives at the same epiphany and he takes the same decision raising ferocious critiques from the Catholic community of the island. A few months later, Vincenzo will receive a letter written in French from Mohsen who heard about him in Zarzis and chose, like him, to give a worthy burial to nameless corpses delivered from the Sea after the Arabian Spring. Mohsen and Vincenzo’s actions shed light on a deeper humanity that emerges when facing the obscene. They remind us of the perpetual fight of man for dignity, despite the marginalisations illustrated by the negative reactions of their communities.

Irene Dionisio

Irene Dionisio is an artist and a film director born in Turin, 1986. She graduated with a Bachelor degree in Social and Esthetic Philosophy at the University of Turin. She attended the M1, Cinema and Cinema and Philosophy School UPJV in Amiens, Picardie (Northern France), the Master of documentaries directed by Daniele Segre and Marco Bellocchio and finally an intensive stage as a filmmaker for Zenit Arti Visive Production and A.titolo, a collective of artistic curators. In July 2011 she also attended the Master Ied directed by Alina Marazzi and Bruno Oliviero “Ideazioni al femminile”. She is currently the director of the historical gay Movie Festival “From Sodoma to Hollywood” promoted by the Cinema Museum of Turin, since 32 years.

She has collaborated as a director and/or author with many national and international movie production houses.

From 2010 she curates socio cultural projects related to political issues such as integration and gender issues through the cinema.

Her artistic production includes video installations and documentaries, such as Sponde. Nel sicuro sole del nord (2015) and La fabbrica è piena. Tragedia in otto atti (2011) that has received numerous awards including the Cariddi Prize, the Solinas Prize, the Scam Prize (Fr) and the Jury Prize at Cine Verité in Iran. Her videos were exhibited at the PAC, Milan, at the Berardo Museum in Lisbon, at Mambo Museum in Bologna and in many other international galleries.

Le ultime cose (Tempesta) is her first feature film, and has been premiered during Critics Week in Venice, and distributed by the Luce Cinecittà Institute in the fall of 2016.

The film has participated in numerous international festivals including Goteborg Film Festival, Moscow International Film Festival, Open Roads in New York, etc.

She was appointed with the David of Donatello 2017 and she won a Special Silver Ribbon at the screenplay in 2017. The latest production is a Krizia and Institut of Wonders commission of a short film author for the revival of the 2018/2019 collection.