OPENING NIGHTAndrea (Claudio Botosso) is a 50-year-old architect who lost his wife Sofia and becomes fixated with Hikma (Desirée Noferini), the lover of a younger acquaintance. He meets Hikma through Rosanna (Anita Kravos), a young anesthesiologist at the local hospital, and her husband Riccardo (Angelo Campolo), an aspiring writer. During an eventful New Year's Eve party, Andrea introduces Riccardo to his prospective client—Nabil (Hedy Krissane), a Maghreb restaurant owner—and his lovely sister Hikma. Months later, Andrea discovers that Riccardo has left Rosanna and that Hikma is pregnant with Riccardo’s child. Hikma struggles with her old-fashioned, fundamentalist brother's view of her condition and also with her relationship with Riccardo. Andrea offers to help the couple and lets them stay with him in his villa, which, as his first architectural project, is laden with meaning for him. Director Francesco Calogero judiciously uses a shifting point of view to show us how each character sees the challenges and nuances of their situation. The film is divided into seasons and we perceive Andrea, Hikma, and Riccardo’s fluctuating emotions the way that an orchard might experience subtle changes in air and moisture with the passage of time. Gardening beside him, the young Hikma increasingly reminds Andrea of Sofia, who passed away under mysterious circumstances four years earlier. Winner of the Premio Corso Salani Award, 2015 Trieste Film Festival and Winner of the Gold Remi Award for Foreign Film, World Fest Houston.
Francesco Calogero is expected to attend
Join us after the film for our Opening Night Party!
8:30pm-11:00pm
Location: San Francisco Italian Athletic Club
1630 Stockton Street (between Union and Filbert)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Film & Party (or Party only): $25 general public; $20 for Italian Cultural Institute and San Francisco Italian Athletic Club members
Copresented by BAIA and SF IndieFest