In the Top 10 program, renowned Italian filmmaker and IDFA 2020 Guest of Honor Gianfranco Rosi presents a nomadic journey through his world of cinema, in the process offering valuable entry points to decode his own oeuvre. Illustrating Rosi’s masterful approach, the selection invites audiences to re-discover the filmmaker through discovering the films that helped shape him, which include documentary, hybrid, and fiction titles. Read more about how the program came to life and explore the titles below.
Selected for the Top 10
In the 1950s, Vittorio De Seta documented the lives of south Italian fishermen, farmers, and mine workers in short films with no dialogue. He packed astonishing density of information into rhythmically edited scenes, like a poet-anthropologist.
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The faces of political prisoners stare straight back at us from photos in dossiers from dictatorship-era Portugal as we hear their recollections. A powerfully eloquent and multi-award-winning minimalist documentary.
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Two filmmakers take in the homeless, heavily pregnant 16-year-old Anna. This cinéma vérité classic is not only a depiction of the deeply divided Italy of the 1970s, but also a fascinating portrait of the dynamics between filmmaker and subject.
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Law-abiding shepherd Michele is falsely accused of murder. He flees, loses everything, and finds he’s left with no option but to commit a crime. A deeply authentic feature film with documentary elements.
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The camera is right there when the relationship of artist David Hockney and Peter Schlesinger implodes. A Bigger Splash was revolutionary in both its form—all the protagonists play themselves—and its frank representation of homosexual themes.
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Monks at the Nocere Inferiore monastery enact nine parables from the life of St. Francis. Both Pasolini and Truffaut declared this to be one of the best films ever made—and even the Vatican concurred with their judgement.
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This intensively researched film by director Luis Buñuel gives a surrealistic twist to Italian neo-realism, such as in his well-known dream scene. This masterpiece dissects the destructive impact of poverty on young slum dwellers in Mexico City.
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Melancholy pervades this unashamedly poetic film that’s difficult to pigeonhole. A raw but lyrical portrait of an extraordinary couple—ex-criminal Enzo and transgender Maria—in the port city of Genoa.
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