And Other Monsters…

They are among us, sometimes within us. Insidious, fascinating, revealing. These are the monsters wandering freely today at the Lido, starting with those explored in the highly anticipated Netflix series Il Mostro (Out of Competition – Series), centered on the investigation into the “Monster of Florence” and directed by Stefano Sollima, a skillful storyteller of crime and true crime. “Monstrous” too are the photographs of Ferdinando Scianna – for their cultural weight, evocative power, and ability to unveil the unspeakable and the shadow. Ferdinando Scianna – The Photographer of the Shadow (Out of Competition) is the tribute that the excellent Roberto Andò has dedicated to the great master from Bagheria, a leading author of Magnum Photos and inimitable poet of an ancestral and ritual Sicilian identity. Also in Competition, another monstrosity: the one that perhaps lurks in the personality of the protagonist of Elisa by Leonardo Di Costanzo, who is serving a sentence for killing her sister and burning her body. Starring in the new work by the author of the rightly acclaimed Ariaferma are Barbara Ronchi and Valeria Golino. Nühai (Girl), also competing, marks the directorial debut of Shu Qi, the actress with a thirty-year career who spent years shaping the screenplay for this project. In Aún es de noche en Caracas (Venice Spotlight), the monster is the city of Caracas itself, which holds protagonist Adelaida hostage as she discovers her home has been occupied by an armed militia. The cast of the film by directors Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugas features star Edgar Ramirez, remembered by many for his portrayal of Gianni Versace in American Crime Story – The Assassination of Gianni Versace. And to remain in dark, clandestine territories – where appearances may be more or less welcome – we move to the Serbian-Hungarian border to follow Afghan passeurs smuggling migrants fleetingly from one side of the frontier to the other. This is the reality captured in Waking Hours (Critics’ Week), the feature-length debut of documentarians Federico Cammarata and Filippo Foscarini. Inspired by Beckett’s Endgame, Pin de fartie (Orizzonti) is yet another monstrum featured today at the Lido: a hybrid of documentary, fiction, and metacinema by Argentine filmmaker Alejo Moguillansky, which promises much indeed…