Memory: a voice raised against atrocity

The title selected to open the 22nd edition of Giornate degli Autori tomorrow is a genuine declaration of intent. The director of Memory, a novel and original take on journeying into one’s past, is Vladlena Sandu, born in Crimea and brought up in Chechnya. A political refugee based in the Netherlands for many years, she brings us her feature directorial debut. In this autobiographical, poetic and hybrid film, Sandu revisits her traumatic childhood memories to confront a haunting question: How can the cycle of violence that shapes children – and is handed down through generations – be broken?

A similar question, we feel certain, runs through the entire Venice Film Festival lineup, with its narratives, first-hand accounts, and visions hailing from a range of countries and cultures – wherever horror and death are depicted and condemned, in the words of Emergency’s R1PUD1A campaign, embraced by Giornate degli Autori.

“The film by Vladlena Sandu,” say Artistic Director Gaia Furrer and General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “is also a powerful invitation for us to cultivate the meaning of our memories and extol the value of our own roots, since without a serious reflection on the past – without a knowing, probing gaze on the events that have preceded us – there can be no future.”

Founded in 2004 by the filmmakers’ associations ANAC and 100autori, Giornate is a platform for top-notch filmmaking and emerging talent that unfolds during the world’s oldest film festival. Sticking to its winning formula, the program this year weds a rigorous international selection of ten titles in competition (plus 6 special events), a showcase of Italian cinema today (the Venetian Nights lineup, arranged in accord with Isola Edipo), and talks and debates on hot-button issues for the audiovisual industry, culture, and society today. In particular, the section trains its gaze on the horror of war, the humanitarian crisis underway in Gaza, and the efforts of those fighting the barbaric undoing of civilization and defending freedom of speech and a free press.

At the Casa degli Autori and in Sala Laguna (via Pietro Buratti 1); in the spaces provided by the Veneto Region / Veneto Film Commission (for the Miu Miu Women’s Tales conversation series); at the Italian Pavilion (for the third edition of Cinèastes en dialogue); and in the Sala Perla (for the official selection), Giornate welcomes festgoers to experience the new and discover the cinema of audacity.