Director Series: Silvio Soldini

We are excited and proud to welcome Silvio Soldini to New Zealand. Silvio will present his latest film "Days and Clouds (Giorni e Nuvole)" at two gala screenings: in Auckland on the 2nd October and in Wellington on the 4th October. Please see below for more details on the event and on the following page for a synopsis of the film.

In the year 2000, Silvio's Bread and Tulips swept the major Italian film awards, claiming nine David di Donatello (the Italian Oscar) statuettes. The Milanese filmmaker's first comedy went on to achieve international success. The reputation that Soldini had gained among many critics as one of the most serious, original, and creative voices in the New Italian cinema was finally matched by public acclamation.

Silvio Soldini's filmmaking career began in the mid-1980s after returning to Milan following two years in a film studies programme at New York University. His first three feature films, The Peaceful Air of the West (1990), A Soul Split in Two (1993), and Acrobats (1997), are dramatic, realistic films that explore social issues and elements of the changing Italian landscape of the late 1980s and 1990s. The next three films, Bread and Tulips, Burning in the Wind (2001) and Agatha and the Storm (2004), were driven by a desire to distance himself from a realistic style of filmmaking and to experiment with more surreal images, characters and narratives. With Days and Clouds (2007), Soldini returns to a naturalistic style of filmmaking suited to the intimate story that immerses its spectators in the challenges facing many Italians today. In this, as in all his films, Soldini holds true to the conviction that it is not the role of the cinema to provide solutions, but rather to raise questions and to prompt reflection as we rethink our identities in an ever-changing and destabilized world.

"Days and Clouds (Giorni e Nuvole)" Gala screenings

The evening will commence with the introduction of Silvio Soldini by Bernadette Luciano, followed by the premier screening of "Days and Clouds (Giorni e Nuvole)" and by a comprehensive commentary on the film and a Q&A with Silvio, moderated by Bernadette.

Auckland 2nd October 8:30pm at Rialto Cinemas, Newmarket

Wellington 4th October 8:30pm at The Embassy, 10 Kent Terrace.

Cost $20 per person, no concessions.

Bernadette is Associate Professor of Italian and Head of European Languages & Literatures at Auckland University and author of 'The Cinema of Silvio Soldini; Dream, Image, Voyage', a critical study of Soldini's cinema.