The Italian Film Festival, ‘Italian Screens’, gets underway today (Oct 12 to 14) with a bouquet of six Italian movies of high artistic and cultural value at iconic New Empire Cinema in downtown Kolkata.

Consul General of Italy in Kolkata, Gianluca Rubagotti, told a press conference on the eve of the screening: “This film festival will introduce the Indian audience to the contemporary Italian cinema apart from the classical ones."

Well-known Bengali film director Gautam Ghosh was invited at the event for his extensive work with Italian Cinema.

“Italian Screens is a pan-India film festival held in four cities across India, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Kolkata holds traditional significance with Italian Cinema for years. We chose the New Empire Cinema (a single screen theatre) in Kolkata for the screening of these movies because of its heritage and historical importance. In other cities, movies will screen at multiplexes," said Gianluca Rubagotti.

Sharing his inspirational connection with Italian cinema, Gautam Ghosh said:“After watching the Italian film 'Rocco and His Brothers' by Luchino Visconti in the late 60s, I thought of becoming a filmmaker.”

"In Rocco and His Brothers I found my own city and society," he added.

The films being screened in Italian with English subtitles, are Il Buco by Michelangelo Frammartino, Sulla Giostra by Giorgia Cecere, Qui Rido Io by Mario Martone, L’Arminuta by Giuseppe Bonito, Ariaferma by Leonardo di Costanzo and Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore. All the movies were released in 2021. The movies will screen at 6 pm and 9 pm respectively.

This initiative is part of a wider project of deepening cultural relations between Italy and India, organized by Cinecittà, largest motion-picture studio in Rome, Italy.

(Images and Reporting by Ayush Gupta)