Village of Women wins Best Film Award for a young director at the Film Festival della Lessinia
Village of Women wins Best Film Award for a young director at the Film Festival della Lessinia
Village of Women directed by Tamara Stepanyan wins The Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense prize in memory of Piero Piazzola and Mario Pigozzi for the best film by a young director.
A village where women, children and elderly reside. Men leave 9 months of the year to Russia to work. Summer, a slow and friendly atmosphere; women do the hay, cut the grass and store for the winter. Fruits will be canned to be eaten during the cold winter. The sun arouses a certain laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with it’s different shades of red, is the season of birth and potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, hence women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start now to welcome men, waiting is long and tiring. Winter is near, a form of suspense sets in: whose husband will come first ? The men arrive with the snow.
The women are shy, they need time to exist in the presence of men. The children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring sets in, the atmosphere becomes tensed. Men depart for the land of tsars. She is weak and sad, but needs to find strength to take care of the children.
Film Festival della Lessinia
The Lessinia Film Festival is the only Italian cinematographic competition dedicated exclusively to short films, documentaries, and full length features about the life, history and traditions of the mountains. The festival, initiated in 1995 by the Curatorium Cimbricum Veronense Association as a video exhibition dedicated to the Veronese mountains, gradually expanded to encompass the mountains of the entire world. It excludes from competition, however, works dealing with sport and mountain climbing.
The competition was held in Bosco Chiesanuova in 1995, and in Erbezzo in 1996. The Film Festival was hosted by the town of Cerro Veronese from 1997-2006, where it earned national and then international recognition. Since 2005, the offical seat of the Lessinia Film Festival has been Bosco Chiesanuova.
The viewings will be held at the Teatro Vittoria over a 9-day period during the last two weeks of August. The cinematographic program will be complemented by special events, retrospectives, international guests, exhibitions, meetings, debates, concerts and other activities concerning the life, history, and traditions of the mountains.
Alessandro Anderloni has been the artistic director of the Lessinia Film Festival since 1997.
