THE BLUE ABOVE AND THE GOLD WITHIN

LOGLINE

With the enthusiasm and vulnerabilities of her nine years, Valeria GAVRYLYUK, an Ukrainian refugee in Milan during the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, wins her battle by finding in Italy not only refuge but also new prospects for her future life.

IMAGE FROM THE FILM

SYNOPSIS

Valeria is a nine-year-old Ukrainian refugee who, with her mother and younger brother, arrives in Italy where she welcomed by her Uzbek grandmother, who teaches her Italian. Valeria starts attending a school in Milan, where she excels in mathematics and Italian, and quickly makes friends with her classmates. The only person she dearly misses is her father, who, skilled hockey player whom Valeria idolizes, remains in Ukraine. Every day after the school , from five in the afternoon until eight in the evening, Valeria trains in rhythmic gymnastics with Anca Goia, a Romanian National Champion. A beautiful friendship blossoms between teacher and student, and Valeria begins to win gold medals and dreams of becoming a successful professional athlete.

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Blue and gold are the colors of the Ukrainian flag, but they also represent Valeria's aspirations. We follow the thread of her thoughts through her voice, which narrates her family, school, and her deep passion for rhythmic gymnastics. We discover that she has an extraordinary ability to reflect and a determination uncommon for her age, yet she is also a normal, affectionate child who enjoys skipping rope and chatting with friends. Valeria is an example of how one can face a terrible life change like war.

SUBJECT: Pepi Romagnoli

DIRECTOR: Pepi Romagnoli

PRODUCTION: Michelangelo Film

CO-PRODUCER: PRONTO FILM ( Ucraina)

GENRE:   COMING OF AGE, REFUGEE, RITMIC GYMNASTIC

PROJECT’S DEVELOPMENT: POST - PRODUCTION

PRINCIPAL LOCATIONS: ITALY: Milan, Bellaria UCRAINA: Kiev

LENTH: 90/52’ Minutes

FORMAT: FULL HD – 4K

DELIVERY’S DATE ROUGHT CUT:   DECEMBER 2024

ESTIMATED BUDGET: 95.000 EURO

BETWEEN THE LINES

LOGLINE

Does our handwriting reveal who we are? Who are these men and women famous in the world beyond what we know about them? Does their way of writing correspond to their identity and to what is told of their story? A graphologist analyzes handwriting specimens of famous people across the globe in search of a correlation between their output and what their lives have been like and the reasons for their success.

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SYNOPSIS

Seated in the parlor of a fine apartment, mother and daughter analyze the handwriting of saints and revolutionaries, popes and dictators, geniuses and inventors, great women who have left their mark on History, but also the most notorious serial killers, while imagine to taking a stroll in a wood.

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Rosanna Bianchi is a lady well into her eighties, who, after dedicating her life to her family and three children, discovers a passion for the study of handwriting. She attains a degree in graphology and at age 57, starts working, publishing her first book and redeeming her life as a typical 1950’s Italian housewife. Now that she can no longer leave the house, her daughter Pepi, has decided to record her as she tries to understand what makes people tick by analyzing their handwriting. These recordings provide us with a peculiar portrait of a woman who ideally dialogues with the world through handwriting styles.

SUBJECT: Pepi Romagnoli

DIRECTOR: Pepi Romagnoli

PRODUCTION: Michelangelo Film

CAST: Rosanna Bianchi, Pepi Romagnoli

GENRE: Grafologia, Arte, Storia

STATUS: In production

LOCATION: Italy

LENTH: 78’/52’

FORMAT: FULL HD – 2K

DELIVERY’S DATE: Aprile 2024

ESTIMATED BUDGET: 178.000 Euro

PUNTI DI VISTA

Premio al PITCHING FORUM FEST
Portugal International Film Festival 2022

Works in progress competition

LOGLINE

The story of a homeless Romanian meshes with the points of view of persons living close to him in the center of Milan, until a discovery connected to his past leads him back to Romania in search of redemption.

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SYNOPSIS

Two different lives coexist in the center of Milan: that of the homeless Mihai, age thirty, from Romania, and that of a lady into her eighties, my mother, who is no longer able to leave her house and who tries to understand others by analyzing their handwriting. This is the beginning of a story in which we shall discover this homeless through a juxtaposition of points of view with the persons he meets in Milan. And then comes the discovery of an association to help the orphans of the Institute where Mihai had spent his youth, and this will convince him to set off to Romania with the goal of coming to terms with his past, finding gainful employment, a proper home and a normal life.

IMAGE FROM THE FILM

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

The idea of confronting my mother’s graphological analyses with the opinions of a homeless, came to me after making the acquaintance of Mihai, who spends his days reading the novels of Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Mihai showed me a willful temperament and so I was drawn to tell his story and eventually leave with him to Romania to meet his mother, whom he still hasn't been unable to forgive for having abandoned him in an orphanage, and in the end to reach Bukovina, where Mihai has never been but had always dreamt of visiting, as a magical corner of heaven.

SUBJECT: Pepi Romagnoli

DIRECTOR: Pepi Romagnoli

PRODUCTION: MICHELANGELO FILM

CO-PRODUCER: KOLECTIV (Romania)

GENRE:  HUMAN INTEREST, PORTRAIT, TRAVEL

PROJECT’S DEVELOPMENT: PRE- PRODUCTION

PRINCIPAL LOCATIONS: ITALY: Milan, ROMANIA: Bucharest, Ploiesti, Busteni, Bucovina

LENTH: 90/45 Minutes

FORMAT: FULL HD – 4K

DELIVERY’S DATE:  DECEMBER 2023

ESTIMATED BUDGET: 215.000 EURO

INK IN CHINA



LOGLINE:

“Ink in China” is a journey-reportage into China's art world that compares the different modes of artistic expression with regards to India Ink: on the one hand China with her millennia old calligraphic traditions and on the other, the West and its more figurative manners of expression.

SYNOPSIS

The documentary film starts in Milan where Jean Blanchaert, eclectic artist as well as gallery manager, describes his rapport with India ink to us: where and how he was inspired to work with India ink; what it means to draw with a mark that cannot be canceled: Jean has published three books in which he has drawn portraits with India ink. Eager to approach India Ink art in China, (where despite the name it was invented), Jean, along with a reduced crew, encounters one of China's most famous Calligraphy Masters, Wang Dondling, who invites him to his studio. Wang speaks to Jean about the act of writing as an expression of the relationship between art and the body, whereupon he illustrates the use of the brush and the movements of his fingertips, wrists, arms and entire body - defining his work as "abstract ink art." His works are deeply rooted in the ancient philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism, as well as in Chinese poetry. By combining poetry and painting, Wang creates works in the course of performances in which he renders the texts of ancient Chinese verses into gestural interpretations. The exchange between the twosome gives rise to the possibility of hosting an exhibition of the Master in Italy. Jean however doesn't find all the answers to the many questions he has brought along with him from Italy: perhaps only at the end of the journey, that pays visits to Hangzhou and Shanghai, after meeting with a host of different contemporary artists will his curiosity be fully satisfied...


DIRECTOR'S NOTES

In the West ink marks seem to have been lost: from digital signatures to the disappearance of lithographic printing presses, they have vanished from comics as well as from the simple pleasure of writing a short notes on greeting cards. Nowadays there is almost embarrassment when confronted with a hand-written letter. Not only has ink disappeared but so too have even the "marks," the identities connected to the signs of our alphabets. At this juncture, how, for example, have methods changed in teaching children to write? To answer this and other questions, the documentary looks for answers in China with her millennia old calligraphic traditions.

SUBJECT: PEPI ROMAGNOLI

DIRECTOR: PEPI ROMAGNOLI

CO-PRODUCTION: MICHELANGELO FILM (ITALY)

GENRE: ART REPORTAGE

STAGE: DEVELOPMENT (treatment)

DELIVERY DATE: SEPTEMBER 2022

LENGHT: 90’/ 52’

FORMAT: 4K

KEY TALENTS: From Italy: Jean Blanchaert-Valentina Cheng- From China: Wang Dongling – Wang Zoujun - Lin HaiHong, Han Lu

ESTIMATED BUDGET: 230.000 euro

MERRY GO ROUND



SYNOPSIS

Youths hailing from different worlds and cultures find their integration in Italy through theater work, acting “Girotondo" (La Ronde) by Arthur Schnitzler.

SUBJECT

Yoon, Barbara and Ivan are three of the protagonists of the integration stories. Their lives interweave with those of other youths hailing from various parts of the world. They are all actors who have found their integration into Italy making a living with their chosen profession: acting. Each of them has a story to tell. We follow them through the arc of a day and discover who they are and what their rapport is with Italy, as well as with the country they had left. The scenes of their daily routines alternate with those of other youths who like them have arrived in Italy and who also like them, recite in Italian. All take part in the staging of “Girotondo" (La Ronde) by Arthur Schnitzler.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

The idea of this documentary film born from the belief that acting breaks down the barriers of communication, and the project tells a story of integration thought the staging of a theatre’s text.

“Vite oltre il confine" (Lives beyond the border) is a project near to the CINEMA OF REAL rather than near to a classical documentary. It is ideally suited for co-production inasmuch as proposing the insertions of stories and issues connected to actors hailing from different countries, as well as shooting in their origin’s countries.

The story is framed along three levels: the level of reality in which we record the protagonists in their daily lives and in the interviews; the level of fiction which is that of the film adaptation of “Girotondo" (La Ronde); and the level of the show rehearsals that catches them in their instinctive confrontation of opinions and personalities.

MERRY GO ROUND

SUBJECT: Pepi Romagnoli

SCREENPLAY: Pepi Romagnoli

DIRECTOR:  Pepi Romagnoli

CO-PRODUCTION:  Wolfang&Dolly (Croazia) Set Sail Films (Serbia

PRINCIPAL LOCATION: Trieste

LENTH: 90/45 Minuts

PROJECT’S DEVELOPMENT: Screenplay

ACTORS CONFIRMED: Yoon C.Joice (Sud Corea, Italia ) Ivan Senin ( Russia, Italia) Barbara Clara ( Venezuela, Italia) Vladimir Aleksic (Serbia) Tihana Lazovic (Croazia)

BUDGET:  150.000 EURO

APATRIDE (STATELESS)



SYNOPSIS

Freely inspired by true events, "Apatride" (Stateless) is the story of Jonas, a Stateless Lithuanian who had arrived in Milano during the collapse of the Soviet Union, and is forced to live without any identity papers. And it is in this Kafkaesque situation that Jonas manages to attain a degree from Bocconi University, while living at the Caritas shelter.

The film portrays the love story that unexpectedly blossoms between Jonas and Ginevra, a young and willful film maker who, armed with a handycam, decides to "immortalize" the mindboggling obstacles Jonas must face in his normal, day-to-day existence.

SUBJECT

In the play of crisscrossing looks among perfect strangers in a metropolis, one rarely asks for the name of a person whose eyes have startled and made an impression. We might never know where he is from and where he is going, nor why at times he appears to be hiding, or what his routine existence is like... But as of a few days, Ginevra has followed up precisely on such curiosities. Over the span of a few days, she has filmed a boy, Jonas, with her video camera, several times - and always careful not to be noticed, she has gathered bits of information, and has come to the conclusion, right at the start of things, that he will be the one to take her far from where she lives, and will allow her to fulfill her ambitions…


DIRECTOR’ S NOTES

In the world there are 10 million people who do not have a homeland, or state-recognized citizenship and who do not own an ID. They live at the borders of society, lacking all basic rights. They are the "Apatride" (Stateless). The project springs from a need to raise awareness about these people: who exactly they are and how they live as an army of "invisible" men and women. The film inserts the story in the context of the campaign: "I Belong," which the High Commission of the United Nations had launched to eradicate statelessness from the world, in 2014, the year in which the story of this film takes place.

Reflections and sentiments, the harmonies and clashes of two opposite universes such as the Capitalist West and ex-Soviet Socialism come to the fore through a love story which aims to delve deeper into the identity of both.

The film avails itself of various styles of lensing, which lend a particular rhythm to the story.

GENRE: DRAMATIC

DIRECTOR: Pepi Romagnoli

CO-PRODUCTION:  ITALY - LITHUANIA

FORMAT: FULL HD RES 1920x1080, FRAME 1:1,85

LENTH: 90/100 Minuts

SCREENPLAY: ANGELO CARBONE, PEPI ROMAGNOLI

LOCATIONS: MILAN, VILNIUS

LANGUAGE: ITALIAN, LITHUANIAN (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

BUDGET:  810.000 EURO

ITALIAN DISTRIBUTION: OFFICINE UBU

LETTERS OF SUPPORT: UNHCR (France, Italy, Lithuania)

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT:

Screenplay – Tentative cast – Co-production agreement’s letter with Art Box, Lithuania – UNHCR support

LOCATIONS

IL COMPLEANNO DEGLI IMMORTALI
(THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY IMMORTALS)

ACTORS



SYNOPSIS

It is the story of a survivor who finds out he enjoys defying death, and he begins to believe he is immortal. To free himself of the guilty feeling of being a survivor, he involves perfect strangers in his defiance of death, these individuals soon find out they cannot live one without the other, and he convinces them to become murderers.

The story comes from the French novel: "Une courte éternité" by Philippe Balland.


DIRECTOR’S NOTE

It is a crime film, where humour and the sense of absurdity slowly drift into folly, as if one were clinging step by step to a growing collective obsession.

CO-PRODUCTION: Michelangelo film, Italy - CDP, Catherine Dussart – France

EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION: Michelangelo film e CDP, Catherine Dussart

DIRECTION: Pepi Romagnoli

SCREENPLAY: Antoine Lacomblez - Pepi Romagnoli

SET OF SHOOTING: Grenoble - Italy

LANGUAGE OF SHOOTING:   French

FORMAT-LENTH: FULL HD - 100'

TIME OF SHOOTING: 6 Weeks

BUDGET:  2.000.000 Euro

SOURCE OF FINANCING: Michelangelo film (Italy)

LETTERS OF INTEREST: Films Distribution (France)

FILM DEVELOPMENT:

International co-production with the French Company CDP by Catherine Dussart.
Screenplay
Tentative cast with letters of interest

LOCATION IN GRENOBLE

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