Leading arthouse sales and production house The Match Factory and Italian film director Pietro Marcello have teamed up for the third time following the company’s acquisition of his documentary “Per Lucio,” which world premieres in the Berlinale Special Gala section of the Berlin Film Festival.
They previously worked together on fantasy drama “Lost and Beautiful,” which played in competition at Locarno in 2015, and period drama “Martin Eden,” which competed at Venice in 2019, winning best actor, and screened at Toronto, where it won the Platform Award. “Martin Eden” was picked up by distributors around the world, and attracted more than 400,000 admissions across Europe.
Marcello’s debut feature-length documentary, “Crossing the Line,” screened in Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2007, and his documentary “The Mouth of the Wolf” was selected for the Berlin’s Forum section in 2010, winning the Teddy Award and the Caligari Film Prize.
In “Per Lucio,” Marcello portrays the world of Italian singer Lucio Dalla through the words of his manager Tobia Righi and childhood friend Stefano Bonaga. It combines biography with social history, using found footage, both public and private, professional and amateur.
Marcello returns to documentary filmmaking “with a masterful use of captivating archival footage, taking a visual and sonorous journey into the poetic and irreverent imagery” of Dalla, said The Match Factory.
“Lyrics and music illustrate an underground and nuanced Italy, a free narration of the country’s history through tragic events and economic boom. This is the Italy of the underdogs and the marginalized: Dalla’s Italy.”
The film, written by Marcello and Marcello Anselmo, was produced by Beppe Caschetto and Anastasia Michelagnoli together with Rai Cinema. The executive producers were Francesca Andreoli and Giulia Moretti.
