OPENING NIGHT APERITIVO
Thursday February 20th from 6-7:15pm
The 11th edition of the Italian Film Festival of Minneapolis / St. Paul (IFF), organized by The Italian Cultural Center of Minneapolis / St. Paul and presented in partnership with MSP Film Society, kicks off with an Aperitivo, the Italian-style Happy Hour in Pracna on Main’s Fireside Room, adjacent to St. Anthony Main Theatre.
Aperitivo is also an invitation to relax and mingle with our special guests including Phaim Bhuiyan, director of Bangla, Mauro Maugeri, winner of The Building Bridges’ Best Italian Short Film and Joe Fairbanks, winner of The Building Bridges’ Best Minnesota Short Film.
Admission is included with tickets to the Opening Night Movie Bangla, screening at 7:30pm.
MINNESOTA PREMIERE – Bangla - Thursday February 20th at 7:30pm
*** Post-screening Q&A with visiting director Phaim Bhuiyan, facilitated by Professor Lorenzo Fabbri ***
Promising director Phaim Bhuiyan’s debut is a fresh and vibrant romantic comedy on the difficulties of love caught between different beliefs.
Phaim (played by the director himself), is an Italian young man of Bangladeshi origin. He lives with his family in Rome’s multiethnic Torpignattara neighborhood, works as a museum steward, and plays in a band. At a concert, he meets Asia (Carlotta Antonelli, Suburra) his exact opposite: impulsive and free-spirited. Despite this, the attraction between them is immediate. But how will Phaim reconcile his love for her with one of his faith’s most inviolable principle?
Based essentially on the director’s own life, Bangla is an honest story about integration and identity with comedy as a driving force.
Director Biography
DIRECTOR Phaim Bhuiyan (Italy, 1995) is a second-generation youth of Bangladeshi origin who grew up in Rome’s Torpignattara neighborhood. He began working as a video maker at age 17, producing several videos for rappers and punk rock bands on the Roman underground scene. He studies Video Design and Film at the Istituto Europeo di Design. During his three years there, he continued working and, among various opportunities, he collaborated with Rai on the program Nemo - Nessuno Escluso, in which he produced a report on second generation love. This led the path to Bangla, his debut feature film.
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR Lorenzo Fabbri is a McKnight Land-Grant Professor for the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota.
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