Genre: Drama

Language: Italian with English Subtitles

Director: Silvio Soldini

Cast: Licia Maglietta, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Giuseppe Battiston

Released: 1997

Duration: 117 Minutes

Rating: PG contains sexual references

Distribution: Intramovies

Celebrating the visit of Silvio Soldini to New Zealand, we are proud to present ‘Acrobats’, a film that screened 10 years ago in the 1998 Italian Film festival and the first in which Silvio casts Licia Maglietta in a leading role.

The title of Soldini’s third feature film, ‘Acrobats’, refers explicitly to a sculpture in the archaeological museum in Taranto of three carefully balanced terracotta figures that serves as one of the film’s many recurring motifs, mysteriously linking and binding the protagonists: more obliquely, the term ‘acrobats’ refers to the film’s protagonists—Elena, a chemist from the North; Maria, a supermarket employee in the South; and Teresa, Maria’s daughter—all acrobats in their own right, tiptoeing through life in a continuous balancing act as they face the challenges and ambiguous position of women living in contemporary Italy.

Elena and Maria come into contact through the film’s fourth protagonist, Anita an old, mysterious immigrant woman who embodies past traditions and practical wisdom unmarred by the alienation and excessive consumerism of the 1990s. She propagates rites of passage, tradition and rituals. A magical feeling present from the beginning of the film pervades the narrative as we become aware of the uncanny affinities that link the film’s women

The film is a celebration of female friendship that crosses social, geographical and generational boundaries. In signature Soldini fashion, the film also celebrates those who take advantage of the opportunities that chance offers them, those who are not afraid to transgress and to take risks.

Winner 1998 David di Donatello: Best actress, best photography.

“Like every good film, ‘Acrobats’ has less solutions than questions. Questions that few of us ask ourselves from the comfortable armchair of out lives. ‘Acrobats’ takes us from our armchairs on a journey of hope.” reVision, Raffaella Mastroiacono