Jacopo Chessa and the Film Commission: between local productions and international prospects
(2025, Italy, 122')
Eleonora Duse (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a legendary figure of Italian theater with a rebellious, proud, and strikingly modern personality, who lived between 1858 and 1924, is portrayed through the eyes of her daughter during the final season of her life. Her career is now behind her; yet, in an Italy troubled by the horrors of the Great War and the first unmistakable signs of Fascism, “la Divina” does not shy away from pain or decline, feeling the need to return to the stage as a necessary gesture – a last attempt to reaffirm herself, her thoughts, and her voice.
An Italian filmmaker and screenwriter (Caserta, 1976), he began his career as a documentarian, creating works such as Bella e perduta (2015), Il passaggio della linea (2007), presented in the Orizzonti section at Venice, La bocca del lupo (2010), winner of Best Film at the Torino Film Festival and Best Documentary at the David di Donatello Awards, and Marco Bellocchio – Venezia 2011, Out of Competition at Venice, which traces the career of the great director and was made on the occasion of the awarding of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In 2019, he returned to Venice in the main Competition with his first feature film, Martin Eden, which earned Luca Marinelli the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor.
