Florence November 28th – December 5th 2014

International documentary film festival

  • Alias Kurban Saïd

    Netherlands 2004 80'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    The search for the hidden identity of an author of the cult novel Ali & Nino is at the core of this film, constructed like a thriller. Kurban Saïd is a mystery, but also a reflection on the meaning of identity. Stories exist. Do authors? Since stories have no borders, the film is a journey bound to the site where reality and fiction chase and court each other.

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    2014 Thursday, December 4th, Spazio Alfieri, 10 pm

  • Before the Flood
    Het verloren land

    Netherlands 2006 58'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    In 2070, a flood destroys the Netherlands. Spectacular images of a possible future are mixed with excerpts of films from the past and statements of present-day scientists, writers, priests, and engineers. De Putter made a masterful specimen of scientific and science-fiction documentary, where the strength of the tragedy is accompanied by the search for the causes that provoked it.

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    2014 Thursday, December 4th, Spazio Alfieri, 3:00 pm

  • Beyond the Game

    Netherlands 2008 75'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    "Warcraft" is not only one of the most famous cyber games all over the world, it is also a virtual world whose borders with the real one can get confused. Sky and Grubby are the absolute champions of the game. The two adolescents are bound to fight as if they were in a western film. But what is there beyond the game? A unique film as thrilling as an insoluble mystery that must be fathomed.

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    2014 Sunday, November 30th, Spazio Alfieri, 10:30 pm

  • Brooklyn Stories

    Netherlands 2002 54'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    The Brooklyn Dodgers always seemed to be winning without ever managing to do so. There are different kinds of defeat. The Dodgers have always gone for the most spectacular and most epic. You can be great when defeated, as is proved by the characters of this film. From their low condition as losers, they depict their love for a special city, a unique neighbourhood, and a mythic baseball team.

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    2014 Sunday, November 30th, Spazio Alfieri, 3:30 pm

  • How Many Roads

    Netherlands 2006 55'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    These are 11 stories of lives that were irreversibly changed by a composition of Bob Dylan. This road movie, across the United States, highlights simple people, those who live at the margins, often disappointed with the American dream, but never broken or dejected. Somewhere a song resounds and offers a glimmer, brightening the day, giving it meaning, and returning its value. The power and miracle of poetry set to music.

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    2014 Tuesday, December 2nd, Spazio Alfieri, 4:00 pm

  • In Memoriam Aleksander Litvinenko
    BACKLIGHT LITVINENKO

    Netherlands 2007 55'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    Alexander Litvinenko is a KGB colonel, an intelligence agent, a dissident and a victim. Alexander Litvinenko is a man killed in London on November 23, 2006, with a few drops of polonium. This film is an exceptional document, made just before the disappearance of the protagonist who was a problematic, unwanted witness to so many unresolved mysteries. This is a tribute to the man and the dissident. It is an exposé of his courage and determination.

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    2014 Monday, December 1st, Spazio Alfieri, 5:00 pm

  • It’s been a lovely day
    Het is een schone dag geweest

    Netherlands 1993 70'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    This is the last year of work of an elderly couple of farmers. They are bequeathing the land that has been farmed by their family for more than 100 years, to heirs who have decided to do something else. This film is a beautiful fresco on a world and culture that is vanishing. Neither rancour nor sadness are to be found. In contrast, it is imperative to keep moving, put everything in place, understand the way of the world, and transform every day into "a lovely day".

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    2014 Saturday, November 29th, Spazio Alfieri, 3:00 pm

  • Nagasaki Stories

    Netherlands 1996 55'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    Kyushiro has lost all his loved ones. The elderly kamikaze lost his glory. The tailor lost his business. The civil servant lost his bet. The photographer lost peace of mind. These are some of the lives crushed by the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Nagasaki Stories is a moving journey in search of specks of bright memories, ruins burning and still shining after 50 years, hanging in the fine dust of emotions.

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    2014 Wednesday, December 3rd, Spazio Alfieri, 4:15 pm

  • Nor His Donkey
    Noch zijn ezel

    Netherlands 2002 50'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    The last episode of a collective film on the Ten Commandments, Nor His Donkey deals with the tenth. The desire for possession and success are like inevitable traces of the human soul, described in three stories by an exceptional guide, a donkey walking alone down a path of the Pyrenees. Jealousy, desire, and greed drive and muddle the world. They give it a form, and thus create stories.

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    2014 Thursday, December 4th, Spazio Alfieri, 4:15 pm

  • Passers-By

    Netherlands 2008 8'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    Inspired from a poem by Johanna Kruit, this short film – part of a collective project entitled Poems from the Sea – is poetry in pictures. On one hand, it records fragments of talks caught in the street, flashes of lives passing by. On the other hand, it shows the bus stops in the province of Zeeland, the patient, welcoming witnesses of our lives.

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    2014 Saturday, November 29th, Spazio Alfieri, 3:00 pm

  • See No Evil

    Netherlands 2014 72'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    Cheetah, Kanzi, and Knuckles are the artist, the scientist, and the guide. Three special chimpanzees that human beings have made to resemble themselves, fooling themselves into believing they, the humans, are better. See No Evil is a special film that goes beyond genuses and species. Jos De Putter’s latest film is a beautiful, intense journey into the deepest twists and turns of man, who tries to mirror in the eyes of those who are beyond good and evil.

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    2014 Friday, November 28th, Odeon, 6:00 pm

  • Solo, the Law of the Favela
    Solo, de wet van de favela

    Netherlands 1994 54'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    The Law of the Favela implies to be with the others. But think and judge for yourself. This applies to the Laws of the Game too. You can pass the ball, only to have it back and run to the goal post. To score a goal is to create a way out. Anselmo and Leonardo know the law of the slum and the laws of the game very well. Someone notices them and gives them a chance. Apparently their dream has come true. But success does not necessarily mean happiness.

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    2014 Wednesday, December 3rd, Spazio Alfieri, 5:15 pm

  • The Damned and the Sacred
    Dans, Grozny dans

    Netherlands 2002 75'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    A company of very young Chechen dancers is leaving for a European tour. Their world is made of ruins, explosions, and terrorist attacks. But everything changes to the rhythm of dance. Their backs get upright and their gazes look proud. Dancing is the choice of those who don’t want to surrender like victims before the arrogance of the violent. Dancing is the poetry of resistance.

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    2014 Sunday, November 30th, Spazio Alfieri, 4:45 pm

  • The Making of a New Empire

    Netherlands 1999 97'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev has conceived a grandiose plan: to make Grozny a heavenly place, a new city for a brand new Chechen society. This is a dream that travels through the consciousnesses of the Chechen community and through the oil pipe lines, reaching the centers of world finance, overseeing the lowlife of Moscow, and ending by taking up Kalashnikovs. Jos De Putter leads us into the maze of a dark and thrilling story that is necessary to understand what is happening between Russia and the Caucasian regions.

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    2014 Monday, December 1st, Spazio Alfieri, 3:00 pm

  • The Shot

    Netherlands 2014 10'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    "My daughter, 8 years old, is watching Bambi for the first time in her life". (J. de Putter)

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    2014 Wednesday, December 3rd, Spazio Alfieri, 5:15 pm

  • Zikr

    Netherlands 1999 7'
    Directed by: Jos de Putter
    Myth and history, transcendence and politics, all are combined in an overwhelming, mystical dance. Zikr is both identity and community of men in the name of God. Against the backdrop of the Chechen war, among breath-taking landscapes, wrinkled-faced elderly people, and fights, a millenarian ritual is performed. Bodies dance rhythmically, voices recite in unison, and individuals become a collective body.

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    2014 Thursday, December 4th, Spazio Alfieri, 4:15 pm

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