Festival Programme

Films by Country

Italy

The Hand of God

È stata la mano di Dio

Paolo Sorrentino

Iconic Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino delivers a majestical memoir with this beautifully shot, ribald bout of nostalgia for growing up amongst the anarchy of 1980s Naples.

Miss Marx

Susanna Nicchiarelli

Socialist pioneer Eleanor Marx is fully brought to life – with all her complexities and contradictions – in this stylised, lavish biopic featuring a deeply affecting performance by Romola Garai.

Notturno

Gianfranco Rosi

Gianfranco Rosi’s visually stunning portrait of ordinary people living in the warzones of the Middle East is the kind of sensory experience that demands the immersion of a darkened movie theatre.

Small Body

Piccolo corpo

Laura Samani

A breathtaking fable that follows a young woman’s quest to save her daughter’s soul from Limbo. One of the most impressive debut features of recent years, and a must-watch for fans of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (NZIFF 2019).

To Chiara

A Chiara

Jonas Carpignano

Offering an intimate look into organised crime in the Calabria region of Italy, To Chiara forgoes the shock-value of violence and drug addiction to consider the heartbreaking impact on family and culture.

The Truffle Hunters

Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw

A love letter to a rapidly vanishing world: this gentle documentary follows a handful of elderly men who, with their beloved dogs, comb the forests of Northern Italy on the hunt for a rare culinary delicacy.