A man climbs onto a window ledge and looks many stories down. Then he throws himself to his death. Or not? Wasn’t there suddenly this woman behind him who pushed him? Or was it all just my imagination? A great start to the Italian thriller “Confidenza” – in German: trust. A story about love, fear and trust in the silence of others. Because it’s about secrets that – if they ever become public – can destroy a life.
“This film is not just about secrets, it remains a secret itself,” says “Confidenza” director Daniele Luchetti. Unfortunately, his film remains a secret that hardly anyone in Germany will see. “Confidenza” had its German premiere this summer at the Munich Film Festival and received excellent reviews. And yet the film does not yet have a German distributor and is neither in the cinema nor in the home cinema.
Self-discovery and self-defense processes
“The example of ‘Confidenza’ by Daniele Luchetti is actually a bit painful,” says Christoph Gröner, the director of the Munich Film Festival and an expert on the Italian film scene. “It’s such a sensational, great Italian film, and it’s a real shame that it won’t be distributed in Germany.”
A fate that many Italian films currently share. They celebrate acclaimed premieres at festivals, but then they are never published by us. The times of Federico Fellini or even Roberto Benigni: long gone. So does it mean: Ciao, Cinema Paradiso? “Italian cinema is not in paradise right now, but is caught in difficult self-discovery processes, including difficult self-defense processes,” says Christoph Gröner.
Italy’s right-wing government vs. left-wing film scene
“Cinema Italiano”: hardly exists in Germany anymore – and under heavy fire at home. The right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni has been in power for two years now. They want to curtail the predominantly left-wing film scene in Italy with a new film funding law.
The film funding law has not yet been passed, but fear is spreading among filmmakers like Marco Amenta, who stands for small, independently produced material, far away from the mainstream. “We fear that the funding will only go to commercial cinema and that artistic, uncomfortable films will no longer receive the necessary support. A danger for niche cinema.”
Production and directing associations combative
“Confidenza” director Daniele Luchetti also agrees: “It’s amazing that when right-wing parties come to power, the first target is culture. You ask yourself why? In Italy there are only a few political, system-critical parties left Films. But the right-wing fight against culture is not about content, but because culture is seen as useless.”
If it has to support films, then the Meloni government wants films that celebrate Italy. Conservative hero stories in which the industry has little interest. So far, many production and directing associations have been combative and there are hardly any filmmakers who are loyal to Meloni and at the same time talented to attract audiences.
Despite all the crisis atmosphere in Bella Italia, Munich Film Festival boss Christoph Gröner remains optimistic. “I believe that at this time we need a great renaissance of the love of cinema, be it in Italy, be it in Germany, that people are talking about the fact that cinema is always a sand in the gears of everyday life and that governments criticize that is the power of cinema.”
