(To Vanessa Tomassini) Italy participates in the 33rd edition of Carthage Film Days (JCC) staged until tomorrow in Tunisia with a selection of seven films, three originals by the timeless master of cinema, Federico Fellini, "Amarcord","The voice of the moon","Eight and a half"And 4 on his work. Francesca Fabbri Fellini, grandson of the director, yesterday presented her animated short film "La Fellinette"And Maestro Mario Mariani, pianist and composer originally from the Marche with his extraordinary concert"The Fellini variations"Were at the center of a special created by the Italian-Tunisian director, Habib Mestiri, and supported byItalian Cultural Institute in Tunis, as well as an exhibition of images entitled "Dream book". A theme that of dreams and psychoanalysis that accompanied Fellini throughout his life, from moments of crisis to great successes.
"La Fellinette was born from a dream because I believe I was a very privileged child - says Francesca Fabbri Fellini - to have had an uncle, king of visionaries, who takes you to the beach in winter for long walks. Federico Fellini was a special uncle, the one who revolutionized the seventh art forever. He arrived in Rimini on January 20, his birthday, but bringing the gifts to me. Usually gifts are received for his birthday, while he arrives with a beautiful blue cape and red boots. He made me wear them and said: 'now let's go for a very long walk because I have to tell you a story'. He used to tell me some very beautiful things like mantras: 'remember Franceschina that we have two lives, those with open eyes and one with closed eyes. Remember that the dream is very important, perhaps even more important than the daydream '. I only understood this when I grew up, especially the sentence that is the ending of my short film, a little film as my uncle Chicco would have called it. But a very successful little film, because it starts in animation and part in live action. It is therefore a silent film for everyone, for an audience from 0 to 100 years old. It is a film that speaks with emotions, which Federico Fellini wanted to thank for all the beautiful things he instilled in us visionaries".
Italian cinema at the Carthage Days therefore shines with a new sensitivity and awareness, that of being an extraordinary means of communication, in a world in constant evolution and tormented by wars, pandemics and renewed social tensions. Thus cultural diplomacy, of which the Italian Cultural Institutes are a beacon in the world, supports art, the genius of our artists, as a means of communication that helps people to understand and communicate. A spirit and a new sensibility which is imbued with the entire special 'The world according to Fellini' at the film festival in Carthage. "Underlining and celebrating the modernity and originality of one of the most distinguished Mediterranean directors and his influence on contemporary cinema“, Explained the new director of the Festival, Sonia Chemki, director and university, from whom international critics expect a renewed edition with a particular vision, a feminine and futuristic sensitivity.
"FelliniMagazine.com was born in a pandemic era, when the shutters seemed to fall on the world, a period of great suffering especially for adolescents. It is a beautiful square where young people can meet great personalities of international culture who tell their stories with interviews done by me and my fellow journalists. We bring together the great personalities of culture to those who take their first steps to be visionaries of tomorrow. We have dedicated a virtual gallery Jung Image Gallery to them, where they can express their talents in art, entertainment, writing and cinema. Today we are lucky enough to have the web that connects us everywhere". Francesca Fabbri Fellini explains to us, confirming how fundamental psychoanalysis was for Federico. "The result of my uncle's meeting with the great psychoanalyst Ernst Bernhard, a Jungian, was the 'Book of Dreams' which still remains one of the most important heritages of his cultural heritage, where my uncle recorded his dreams both visually , drawing them, both with writing. It is a book in my opinion still unspecified for 99,9%. Because in my opinion it is a book of white magic that should be read in reverse. There are all the encounters in the life of Federico Fellini, from Picasso to Mastroianni, to Giorgio Strehler". And then a message: "I believe that beauty will save the world. I think that each of us has a task on this beautiful planet Earth of ours. Since I inherited from Federico, the passion for everything next door, which has no explanation, I was told that I was put with stardust on this planet to share the beauty, which means to invite the young people to listen to beautiful music as we did this evening with Mario Mariani, an extraordinary concert performer with the music of Nino Rota; go to an exhibition and be impressed by the paintings; listen to a record or go out with friends, but always surrounded by beauty. Because only beauty, as Fyodor Dostoevsky made his protagonist say, can save the world".
Maestro Mario Mariani plays the piano, an instrument which is believed to know everything. He works a lot on the strings, using objects inside the piano to radically modify the sound, as he himself tells us: "I try to go a lot inside where the sound is born, transforming the piano into a circus orchestra. A term not by chance because the program that I will present here in Tunis is dedicated to Fellini, 'Fellini variations'. Federico Fellini intended humanity as a circus with these funny, almost tragicomic characters. The idea of this program was born on the occasion of the centenary of Fellini's birth, in 2020, then interrupted by the infamous Covid-19 pandemic.". Regarding his bond with Fellini, Mario Mariani states: "Fellini is an artist that I have always felt very close to me, even geographically, because I am from Pesaro, the birthplace of Gioacchino Fellini, and he is from Rimini. I have always listened to Fellini's music, there was a triptych 'The Fellini Variations' which I also recorded in an album 'The Soundtrack Variations' dedicated to the relationship between composers and directors. There was Nino Rota and Fellini, Danny Elfman and Tim Burton, Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock, and also myself with Vittorio Moroni".
The JCC 2022 program foresees the screening of 599 films from 72 countries - 23 African, 17 Arab in addition to 32 international participations. Godmother of this edition is Saudi Arabia, tributes will be dedicated to the late Tunisian artist Hichem Rostom and director Kalthoum Bornaz as well as Yamina Bachir Chouikh (Algeria), Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi (Morocco), Naky Sy Savané (Ivory Coast) and Daoud Abdel Sayed (Egypt). Female directors will be at the center of "Focus Spain"and "Focus Palestine". The opening film, screened on the first day of the festival, October 29, a Moroccan feature film, "Fatema, the inoubliable sultan”By Abderrahim Tazi, in homage to the writer and activist Fatema Mernissi. 24 feature films are competing for the official competition among the best recent Arab and African productions, the main section of the festival, of which 12 fiction and 12 documentaries as well as 12 fictional shorts and 8 cine-documentaries. Tunisia is represented by 8 films, with 2 films per section. For the second consecutive year, the JCC presents four short films adapted from Tunisian short stories, produced with the support of the National Center for Film and Image (CNCI). Among the usual sections of the festival, Cinemas of the World, Horizons of Tunisian Cinema with 26 new films, Ciné Avenue (6 films) screened in Avenue Bourguiba, JCC in Prisons (7 films) and JCC in Barracks (7 films). The Carthage Film Days represent the Oscars of the Arab world, they are organized under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture of Tunis with a steering committee appointed by the minister. Since its creation in 1966, the JCCs have offered visibility to African and Arab films, and for some years they have also opened up to world cinema.