CinemaItaliaUK's mini film festival returns

Weekend focuses on women in the Mafia

by Amber Wilkinson

Black Souls
Black Souls

CinemaltaliaUK’s mini film festival returns to the Riverside Studios in London for its fourth edition this month. The festival - titled Donne di Mafia - focuses on the role and presence of women in the Italian mafia, and their portrayal in Italian cinema and runs on the weekend of March 16 to 17.

Among the films screening this year is Francesco Munzi's Black Souls, based on a true story and featuring Aurora Quattrocchi as an elderly matriarch and Pippo Mezzapesa's Burning Hearts, which charts the love story of a man and a woman from rival clans.

Nevia, directed by Nunzia De Stefano, about a girl who joins a circus, is also in the line-up along with Francesco Rosi's 1958 debut The Challenge. The screenings will be followed by Q&As, with guests inlcuding Munzi and Virginia Apicella, who stars in Nevia.

The event is sponsored by the University of Bath, and after the March London screenings the festival will travel to Bath, where films will be shown at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on April 23 and 14.

For more information about the line-up or to book, visit the official site.

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