Locarno 2025

The last penal colonies in Europe are in Sardinia, as evidenced in the Locarno selection Nella Colonia Penale, directed by Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia and Alberto Diana. The film was shot by female DOP Federica Ortu. “It was something also that was interesting, to have the cinematography led by a woman cinematographer inside a so-deep masculine world. I think it gives something more to the film,” co-director Diana reflects.

Folk music has held a deeply ambivalent place within Irish culture over the last 100 years, since the end of British colonial rule. As Dennis Harvey and Lars Loven point out early on in their feature doc Celtic Utopia (a world premiere in Locarno’s critics' week), it has come to "incarnate the contradictions of the island: rebellion, conservative Catholicism, nostalgia for a future unrealised.” The directors get musical with BDE.

Sold internationally by CAT&Docs, the feature documentary She gives voice to some of the 80,000 workers in one of the largest electronic industrial plants based in Vietnam, where 80% of the basic workforce are women who work 12-hour shifts, day and night. All protagonists are connected by the exploitation they are subjected to every day. Italian distribution rights are held by AntropicA and PFA Films, while Les Films de l’oeuil sauvage will distribute the film in France.

Fantastique is a magic‑realistic documentary that follows 14‑year old contortionist Fanta in Guinea Conakry. Fanta juggles between the care for her ailing mother, school and what she loves the most; training as one of the only girls within an acrobatic group, with the hopes of joining their next big tour. Trying to bridge all expectations, Fanta starts to doubt what she really wants. The film is produced by Ellen De Waele and Mirna Everhard (Serendipity Films, Belgium), who are also handling sales.