Matteo Garrone: Gomorra

I am on holidays in Tuscany, in Montespertoli, a small nice town in the middle of the wine paradise. Yesterday the four of us went for an open air screening of the new, enormously strong quasi-documentary film Gomorra based on the book of Roberto Saviano that is published all over. “The movie is made up of six episodes with six main characters – all revolving around the foursided criminality between the ports of Naples, Scampia, Castelvolturno and Terzigno” (Variety Profile). Did not understand the language, no English subtitles, this was for a local audience, but could feel the nerve in the film through the hand-held, constantly moving camera and the characters, who played like this was their daily profession. Return of the neo-realism. Watch it when it comes to a cinema near you.

Will be back with a review when I have understood the language.

Italy, 2008, 135 mins. Grand Prix, Cannes 2008. Review from there: http://www.cinematical.com/2008/05/21/cannes-review-gomorra/

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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