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Director:
Cesare Bedogne
Writer:
cesare bedogne
Producer:
cesare bedogne
Country:
Italy, Greece
Year:
2017
Runtime:
00:38:00
Synopsis:
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“I have already been
A bush and a bird
A boy and a girl
A mute fish in the sea”

(Empedocles, Purifications)

This film is based on documentary material but is not, strictly speaking, a documentary film. Nor it is a work of fiction. The film rather appeared to us like a dream, not a nocturnal dream, but one which unfolded day by day while shooting. A dream shared between the photographer-director and the actress (or, better, the woman portrayed in the feature), which nevertheless seemed to follow its own, enigmatic necessity through which the daily shots joined almost magnetically, interweaving in a pattern of superimposed layers that unceasingly merge and dissolve one in another, in the constant flux, crystallization and reshaping of psychic interior. At a certain point, this dream seems to end but in fact it only opens up to another dream, or hallucination, where the film itself abruptly starts to burn, unleashing new and old visions - fragments of reality - until it is put out by a sudden storm and dissolves in a twilight of sea-waters. In this sense, the film is also a meditation on the elements, Water and Fire, Wind, Earth and Skin, inspired by a Sun-Eye that appeared almost by itself in one of the first shots and took possession of the narration, in the endless flow and unfathomable metamorphosis of all things and beings.

A REVIEW MADE ON OCCASION OF THE BERLIN REVOLUTION FILM FESTIVAL

"Darkly oneiric, deeply mysterious, sublimely beautiful and uncompromisingly lyrical, 'Maria's Silence' is the most mesmerizing, transcendentally cinematic film I've seen this evening at Berlin Revolution Film Festival". (Nikola Gocić, from Experimental Film Society)

AN EXCERPT FROM PHILIPPE MORA'S SPEECH ON OCCASION OF THE CONCRETE DREAM FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS CEREMONY IN HOLLYWOOD:

“It was very difficult to judge and I took it seriously… What is Avant-Garde,what IS Avant-Garde? There is a whole tradition about Avant-Garde in art and it starts with the Dada's, with Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp, and Avant-Garde means being ahead, ahead of everyone else, that’s what it is. It also means disruptive and it is very difficult for an artist to be disruptive because you can't really sell your paintings (…). It is difficult to be an Avant-Garde artist in any form, particularly because, as I said, if you are disruptive no one wants to see it. (...) In movies it is even more difficult to be Avant-Garde because it involves more money. So, what is great now is that you can be an Avant-Garde artist with basically no money on digital stuff.
(…) The winner is Maria’s Silence. I should say why, just briefly… The whole history of the Avant-Garde is in this film, including Japanese cinema, including Man Ray’s photography, including all sexual aspects of the Avant-Garde art, and it reminded me also of that great Japanese film “Woman from the Dunes”, by Teshigahara. What really got me is that it is visually beautiful, it is like a dream, it is surrealism but also there is a shot of what looked like twigs burning. Cesare Bedogné repeated this shot and only after I looked at the film for the second time I realized it wasn’t twigs burning, it was 16 mm film. And so the film also comments on the sad demise of film, even though he shot this - I checked – on digital… It is a terrific film. It has got all the themes of the Avant-Garde in it in a very graceful way”.

Cast:
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Maria Frepoli

Awards:
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Beijing International Short Film Festival
Beijing
November 14, 2017
China
Italian Institute of Culture, Athens, Greece
Athens
November 14, 2018
Greek Premiere
Greece
Concrete Dream Film Festival
Los Angeles
June 9, 2018
American Premiere
Best Avantgarde Film (Philippe Mora Award)
United States
Rome Independent Prisma Film Awards
Roma
May 24, 2018
Best Editing
Italy
AMIIWorkFest
Vilnius
May 2, 2018
Best Feature Narrative
Lithuania
One Shot Short Film Festival (Film Without Limits section), Armenian Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art
Yerevan
June 4, 2018
Armenia
AC Gallery (in the context of the Concrete Dream Film Festival)
Los Angeles
June 12, 2018
Award Winner
United States
FICCSUR 2018
Valparaìso
May 26, 2018
South American Premiere
Best Experimental Feature
Chile
Norwegian Seagull International Short Film Festival
Haugesund
European Premiere
Norway
BIDEODROMO BILBAO, International Experimental Film Festival
Bilbao
September 18, 2018
Spanish Premiere
Spain
Santorini Film Festival
Santorini
June 25, 2018
Best Experimental Film
Greece
Foggia International Film Festival
Foggia
November 20, 2018
Italy
69th Montecatini International Short Film Festival
Montecatini
October 25, 2018
Italy
Siren Film Festival
Vasto
July 25, 2018
Italy
Amazing Shorts
Madrid
October 2, 2018
Spain
Nuovo Festival del Cinema di Alghero
Alghero
October 14, 2018
Italy
Cinemistica Film Festival
Granada
November 29, 2018
Spain
Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival
Istanbul
November 22, 2018
Turkish Premiere
Turkey
Pollino Film Festival
Pollino
December 27, 2018
Best of Fest, Best Editing, Best Director, Best Cinematography
Italy
Virgin Spring Cinefest
Calcutta
November 29, 2019
Indian Premiere
14th season BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
India
Aphrodite Film Festival
New York
Best Experimental Film
United States
AVIFF CAnnes Art Film Festival
Cannes
May 23, 2019
French Premiere
France
European Cinematography Awards
Amsterdam
Best Experimental Film
Netherlands
Il Varco Short Film Festival
Pescara
Honorable Mention for Experimental Cinema
Italy
Harlem International Film Festival
New York
May 18, 2019
United States
Vertigo Film Festival
Milano
June 28, 2020
Best CInematography of the Year Award
Italy
Natura e Sogno
Roma
November 24, 2019
Italy
Berlin Revolution Film Festival
Berlin
May 3, 2020
German Premiere
Germany
New Wave Motion Film Festival
Hong Kong

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