Sales company Deckert Distribution has boarded “Pure Unknown,” by Italy’s Mattia Colombo (“Il Posto”) and Valentina Cicogna, and Venezuelan filmmaker Iván Simonovis Pertíñez’s debut feature “My Father’s Prison,” both selected in the main International Competition at Swiss international documentary film festival Visions du Réel.
“Pure Unknown” follows the story of Italian forensic pathologist Cristina Cattaneo in her battle to put a name to each nameless body that lands in her autopsy room.
She calls them the Pure Unknown. Many belong to the fringes of society: they are homeless, sex workers or runaway teenagers. More recently, they have been mostly migrants drowned at sea trying to reach Europe’s shores.
The film marks Cicogna’s directorial debut. An established scriptwriter and editor, she first met Cattaneo in 2015 while researching an autopsy scene for a thriller she was writing, she tells PvNew. She approached her long-time collaborator, Colombo, with the project, but it took them years to earn Cattaneo’s trust.
One of the core questions the directors were confronted with, as was Cattaneo in her pursuit, is “why spend resources on the dead when there is so much to do for the living,” says Cicogna.
“What we understood at Cristina’s side, and what we tried to tell in the film, is that it is very important to identify the dead for the dignity of the dead, but maybe most importantly for the dignity of the relatives, who are still waiting. They need to close the story to be able to start mourning,” explains Colombo.
The directing duo chose to address this question of identity in a “cinéma vérite” observational style, that follows Cattaneo and her colleagues from her lab at Milan’s state university to the European Parliament in her battle to ensure the “nameless” are not forgotten.
Talking about their objective, Cicogna says: “We chose to tell the story of the mission of Cristina because in these tough times we really wanted to give a role model, to give people hope. Cristina is a special person, but at the same time she is an ordinary woman who tries her best to make the world a better place to live.”
“Pure Unknown” is produced by Italy’s Jump Cut, in co-production with Amka Films Productions, Sisyfos Film Production and Swiss public broadcaster RSI. It is having its world premiere at Visions du Réel on April 22.
“My Father’s Prison” is the personal story of the director’s father, a Venezuelan political prisoner who spent 15 years in jail and under house arrest before fleeing the country.
The film combines footage shot during his father’s house arrest, and videos his father made both of his family and of his time as chief of police of the capital Caracas before he was arrested.
In 2009, Iván Simonovis senior was found guilty of killings that occurred during an anti-government rally in April 2002 and sentenced to 30 years in jail. Due to the severe conditions he was held in, his health deteriorated and he was later put under house arrest.
Pertíñez, who was studying in Germany where he now lives in exile, travelled to Venezuela whenever time and money allowed, to film moments with his father during his house arrest. His father had been jailed when he was just a child, and he says he felt he was living on borrowed time.
“I was shooting without knowing whether I would ever finish the film. It was like an act of survival – it was clear to me that my father was either going to die in prison or was going to be there forever. So, I just wanted to use this small space when he was put under house arrest to film and capture those moments with him and try to rebuild something,” he explains.
He says his role as a filmmaker is to set the record straight: “Us storytellers are having to compete with the government’s own version of the truth, and outright censorship.
“Changing history and Venezuelan identity has been part of their long-term agenda and is a key as to why they’re still in power — Chavez and Maduro changed the name of our country, our flag, our currency and even the time-zone. We are making films because we need to set things straight, and set ourselves straight in the process of making films about home and family.”
The producer of “My Father’s Prison” remains anonymous for security reasons. The film will have its world premiere at Visions du Réel on April 23.
Visions du Réel runs in Nyon, Switzerland, from April 21 through to April 30.
