"Il Varco" by Ferrone and Manzolini awarded at DocsBarcelona 2020
Great success at the 23rd DocsBarcelona - International Documentary Film Festival for Il varco - Once More Unto the breach by Federico Ferrone and Michele Manzolini, awarded Best Film in the section What the Doc!, dedicated to the most risky and innovative documentaries on the international scene.
Il varco is the subjective account of a soldier involved in the disastrous Italian campaign in Russia during World War II, a work of fiction but made by the directors with documents of disparate origin and both official and amateur material from the archives of Istituto Luce Cinecittà and Home Movies - Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia, co-producers of the film together with Kiné.
The prize was assigned:
For its meditative and poignant denunciation of Europe’s inability to learn from its past mistakes, built in colonialism and the World Wars.
This award also recognizes the directors’ freedom in adopting archive footage and soldiers’ diaries to construct a film that navigates between factual testimony, poetic narrative, and the dream-like evocation of a past that darkens our present.
Il varco, which already gained success with critics and audiences at the Biennale Cinema 2019 of Venice, where it premiered in the section Sconfini, has been selected by two other international Festival: SIFF - Shangai International Film Festival, one of the greatest of East Asia (scheduled in June but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic to new dates soon announced) and Beyond Borders - International Documentary Festival of Castellorizo, taking place from August 23rd to 30th , 2020 and presenting the excellence in cinematographic storytelling on 'History and Society'.