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The Mouth of the Wolf
La Bocca del Lupo
Directed by
Italy
2009
75 min
- Italian
Drama, Romance
Enzo returns to Genoa after a lengthy absence. He crosses the city in search of places he remembers from before but they have been inexorably changed by passing time. He finds Mary waiting for him at the small house in the ghetto of the old city. His life-long companion, she has been waiting for Enzo to return from the prison where he was serving time.
Awards
- Prize of the City of Torino, Torino FF
- Best Film, Torino FF
- Teddy Award for Best Documentary, Berlin IFF
Credits
- Cast
- Vincenzo Motta
- Mary Monaco
- Enzo Motta
- Screenplay
- Pietro Marcello
- Cinematography
- Pietro Marcello
- Editing
- Sara Fgaier
- Music
- ERA (Singers: Vincenzo Motta
- Mary Monaco)
Director's Statement
The film came about from an idea by the San Marcellino Foundation, the Jesuits of Genoa, who for years have been offering various forms of help to the city’s homeless, marginalised, vagabonds and indigent. They had seen my previous work. The intent was to depict not so much the work of the Foundation, but the world it helps, the people and the city.
I spent eight months preparing and observing the area. Before the film I didn’t know Genoa very well, the only memories I had were of the stories told by my father, who as a sailor from the south used to set out to sea from there, and Genoa was his ideal city for his entire youth. He would always tell me how beautiful it was, of the tripe shops – that are gone today – and of its sky; a northern city that looks to the south.
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Press
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There's magic and mastery aplenty... a docu-fiction hybrid that represents a breathtakingly impressive debut from Pietro Marcello... A highly unusual love story between a macho ex-con and a transsexual former drug-addict, it's also an exploration and celebration of their home city of Genoa, delicately examining the past's interactions with the present
Pietro Marcello
Italy
I tried to depict the present around me, those remnants that come from a past world, while the nostalgia of the 20th century is represented by archive footage, films by both professionals and amateurs, Genoans who go back many generations. My perspective on the present is that of a foreigner talking about what he sees from the window, the perspective on the past and on History is represented by the Genoans who silently recounted it through a camera lens.
He made his directorial debut in 2003 with the shorts CARTA and SCAMPIA. The following year, IL CANTIERE won at the Festival Libero Bizzarri. In 2005, LA BARACCA won the Audience Prize at Videopolis. CROSSING THE LINE was shown at the Venice Film Festival in 2007, in the Orizzonti section; it won the Pasinetti Award and a Special Mention Doc/it. THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF (2009) won at the Turin Film Festival and, in 2010, the Forum and Teddy Bear awards for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival, a David di Donatello and a Nastro d'Argento, Internantional Jury Prize - Cinéma du Réel, at the Buenos Aires Film Festival. In 2011 he made PELESJAN'S SILENCE, presented at Venice as a special event. With the independent production company "Avventurosa", set up as part of the project for THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF, he made LOST AND BEAUTIFUL, that won the Special Mention of the Ecumenical Prize and the Junior Jury Award at FF Locarno in 2015.
Selected Filmography
