MWFF 2017: Resina

RESINA

FIRST FILM WORLD COMPETITION
Italy

Inspired by a true story.

At the end of its last screening at the Montreal World Film Festival 2017, during the Q & A session with the director Renzo Carbonera, a woman from the audience called the film "a pearl". Indeed, this film is a real gem. The cinematography is great, the sceneries from the Northern Italy where the film action is set inspire a desire to be in that countryside, to walk on its mountainous paths, and to see those magnificent vistas in person. Yet not only visual senses grab viewer's attention, the auditory elements are foremost as they introduce the audience to the unique sound of an all male choir and to their superb singing (watch the film trailer at the end of the article). 

The film has two themes that are intertwined. One deals with the reinvention of a male choir that has come to its total decline, far from its former glory when it was winning prizes and choir competitions not only in Italy but internationally. And the second themes deals with an edgy and at first distant personage Maria, the main heroin, who returns to her native village after the disappointments in the big world, and unwittingly, and even at first unwillingly becomes the saviour, motivator, and a kind of an inspiring "guardian angel" that resurrects the choir, giving it a new sound and artistic face. In the process, she also reinvents herself and her life, overcoming her former personal and artistic rejections, and establishing her own musical career as an accomplished director of an all male choir.

The film's title RESINA in Italian means a tree resin. Resin is a liquid stored in the outer cells of trees that is highly viscous in the beginning but gets hardened when treated. It is used to manufacture lacquer, varnish, jewellery, and perfumes, and is also used to seal and hold together wooden sculptures and boats. It is an appropriate name for the film as it symbolizes the pine-wooded region where it is set, and the hardening and solidifying of both Maria's character and the choir's artistic existence from their previous amorphous states. Ending in letter "a", the word Resina sounds feminine, as if it were Maria's artistic name, representing her strength that has glued the choir and made it hold together.

The film was shot in Luserna, Maria's native village situated in the area that was annexed to Italy after the World War I, prior to that being close to the Italian border but inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The inhabitants still speak an ancient Germanic language called Cimbric which is rapidly becoming extinct. Only about 100 people in Luserna (or Lusérn in Cimbric) use this language in their everyday life. Another 100 understand it and either don't speak it or speak it badly. The population is ageing, and the new terminologies and concepts of the contemporary world cannot be expressed in this ancient Cimbric language, so it is rapidly being replaced by the modern Italian.

Make a point to see this gem of a film, it is intriguing and inspiring. You will also hear the sounds of the language as spoken by its natives speakers, the language which most likely will no longer exist within another decade or two. And you will hear their two beautiful and haunting traditional folk songs as arranged by the film's music director Luca Ciut.

Montreal World Film Festival's Official Synopses:

Male choir and female director. A family and a small community need binding together in order to face challenges of the future.

Production Team

Director : Renzo Carbonera
Screenwriter : Renzo Carbonera, Alessandro Bandinelli

Cinematographer : Harald Erschbaumer

Country : Italy

Length : 90 min.

Editor : Elena Cabria

Cast : Maria Roveran, Thierry Toscan, Alessandro Averone, Jasmin Mairhofer, Mirko Artuso, Vasco Mirandola, Andrea Pennacchi, Diego Pagotto.

Music : Luca Ciut

RESINA was inspired by a story featured in Renzo Carbonero' previous documentary film Stop and Listen (2010). You can read about this documentary film here.

FILM TRAILER on VIMEO

This is not an official trailer which will be published later this fall when the film is released in Italy. At this point, it is only a teaser.

https://vimeo.com/226657653

Director Renzo Carbonera presented his film at MWFF 2017 before the projection and answered the audiences' questions after the film ended. See the before and after photos of his on stage presentations just below.

Click on images to enlarge them. 

For more information about the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

Article's dedicated web address.