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Day five of #Giffoni54: on July 23 at 10 AM, the legendary Sala Truffaut will host the +13 jury and screen the film WE GROWN NOW (USA 2023) directed by Minhal Baig. The film explores the sudden coming-of-age of Malik and Eric, two best friends with a brotherly bond. Both raised in the vast Cabrini-Green housing complex in Chicago in 1992, they must face a tragic event that shakes their community and tests their friendship. The boys learn to find their place in a world that doesn’t always give them room to grow and dream. At 2:30 PM, the jurors of the +16 section will watch FOREIGN TONGUE (France, Germany, Belgium 2024) directed by Claire Burger. The feature film talks about Fanny, a 17-year-old French student, who goes on a cultural exchange to Germany. In Leipzig, she meets her pen pal Lena, who is the same age and eager to engage in political activism. To impress Lena, the rather shy and reserved Fanny invents a completely different life for herself, but soon becomes trapped in her own deceit.
At 5 PM in Sala Alberto Sordi, the +10 category returns to watch WINNERS (Germany 2024) by Soleen Yusef. The film is about Mona, an eleven-year-old who, along with her seven-member Kurdish family, fled Syria and ended up in Berlin. Mona attends an elementary school where 90% of the students are “foreigners”, and there is a lot of chaos and tension with the teachers, especially since Mona doesn’t speak German. However, a teacher, Mr. Che, recognizes Mona’s special soccer talent and selects her for the girls’ team. But this well-intentioned gesture doesn’t make things easier.
Following the special afternoon event, the young jurors of the +6 category will rewatch 2:15PM (South Korea 2024) directed by Seryeong Jeong in Sala Lumière. The feature film tells the story of Hyunsu, a ten-year-old girl who meets Jo Minha, another six-year-old girl who is continuously abused by her father. Understanding the power of kindness, Hyunsu secretly visits Jo Minha every day at exactly 2:15 PM, spending only a few precious minutes together each time. During these brief encounters, Hyunsu teaches Jo Minha to read and draw, opening up a world of imagination and light. Despite the harsh circumstances, their friendship blossoms like a flower in a crack in the concrete, bringing moments of warmth and joy that begin to break down the cold walls surrounding Jo Minha.
In Sala Galileo, at 10 AM, the +18 category jurors will watch SUMMER BROTHER (Netherlands, Belgium 2023) directed by Joren Molter. The plot revolves around Brian, a boy who lives with his father Maurice in a dingy trailer park. When the institution where Brian’s mentally disabled brother Lucien is being treated offers financial compensation if they take care of him during the summer holidays, Maurice immediately agrees. Brian starts to take care of Lucien and they slowly become true brothers. Meanwhile, tensions between Maurice and his creditors become strained and the trailer home becomes increasingly unsafe for Lucien. Brian is thus forced to make an adult decision. Concluding the day’s screenings in Sala Galileo are the jurors’ parents: at 4 PM, the Gex Doc section will watch UNTIL I FLY (India, France 2024) directed by Kanishka Sonthalia and Siddesh Shetty. This documentary, set in an Indian Himalayan village, follows a charismatic boy named Veeru, born to an Indian mother and a Nepalese father. Veeru lives through five years of transformation, grappling with the profound effects of ethnic discrimination. Growing up in a village that mocks him for his mixed identity, Veeru endures relentless bullying and terrible insults. Instead of reacting, Veeru retreats into an inner world where gods and demons shape his moral compass and nature becomes a sanctuary where he dreams of befriending birds.
In Sala Blu at 8 PM, for the Parental Experience section, there is the film FLAMINIA (Italy 2024) by Michela Giraud. The film follows Flaminia, a cheerful girl from North Rome, obsessed with physical fitness and wealth. Under pressure from her mother Francesca, she is about to marry Alberto, the son of an important diplomat, thus providing the family with the much-coveted social climb. Everything is ready for the big event when Ludovica, Flaminia’s half-sister, a whirlwind of complexities with an unmanageable heart, bursts into her life. A thirty-year-old on the autism spectrum, Ludovica disrupts Flaminia’s life with the force of an earthquake, exposing all the hypocrisies Flaminia believed she could easily live with. Just as the sisters’ cohabitation brings back the feeling of a forgotten bond, an unexpected event puts everything at risk once again. (Free entry while seats last, priority will be given to participants in the Impact! section).