U.S. journalist and filmmaker Michael Premo’s doc “Homegrown,” which follows a group of supremacist Donald Trump supporters from the 2020 campaign trail all the way to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, is among titles set to world premiere at the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week.
Brooklyn-born Premo played a significant role in Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Sandy’s hurricane response effort.
The out-of-competition opener of the section dedicated to first worksis French director Aude Léa Rapin’s “Planet B,” a cyberpunk sci-fi film starring Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) about a group of political activists in 2039 France who, pursued by the state, vanish without a trace only to reawaken “trapped in an entirely unfamiliar world,” according to the provided synopsis.
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Besides “Homegrown,” the seven-title competition comprises Italian drama “Anywhere Anytime,” directed by Iran-born helmer Milad Tangshir. The film riffs off Vittorio De Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves,” telling the tale of a young illegal immigrant living in Turin who starts working as a food-delivery rider until his bike gets stolen.
Vietnamese director Dương Diệu Linh is competing with “Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” about a wedding venue staffer who discovers that her husband is betraying her on live TV; French-American filmmaker Alexandra Simpson is bowing Florida-set atmospheric drama “No Sleep Till”; and British-French filmmaker Jethro Massey is debuting with “Paul and Paulette Take a Bath,” a rom-com about a young American photographer and a French girl with a taste for the macabre who embark on a morbid road trip.
Rounding off the competition are Austrian filmmaker Bernhard Wenger’s tragicomedy “Peacock,” starring German actor Albrecht Schuch (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), and Egyptian allegorical film “Perfumed With Mint” that marks the directorial debut of Emmy-winning Egyptian cinematographer Mahammed Hamdy(“The Square”).
The out-of-competition closer is French director Lawrence Valin’s fast-paced thriller “Little Jaffna,” set in the streets and neighborhoods at the heart of the Parisian Tamil community.
Describing her selection, Venice Critics’ Week general delegate Beatrice Fiorentino said the films represent a wide range of works that comprise “both genre and arthouse cinema” and employ a “realistic, documentary, sometimes ironic style,” or, “often metaphorically use the prism of magic realism.”
All Venice Critics’ Week entries will compete alongside titles in the official selection for the fest’s Lion of the Future prize, which is worth $100,000.
The Venice Film Festival’s official selection lineup will be announced on Tuesday. The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival runs Aug. 28-Sept. 7.
COMPETITION
“Anywhere Anytime,” Milad Tangshir (Italy)
“Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” Dương Diệu Linh (Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia)
“Homegrown,” Michael Premo (United States)
“No Sleep Till,” Alexandra Simpson (United States, Switzerland)
“Paul & Paulette Take a Bath,” Jethro Massey (United Kingdom)
“Peacock,” Bernhard Wenger (Austria, Germany)
“Perfumed With Mint,” Muhammed Hamdy (Egypt, France, Tunisia)
OUT OF COMPETITION
Opening Film: “Planet B,” Aude Léa Rapin (France, Belgium)
Closing Film: “Little Jaffna,” Lawrence Valin (France)
