Another film which doesn’t seem to have found any kind of distribution in Italy so far, although it might well get a release at some point this year. Here’s the blurb according to Cineuropa:
Alessandro Piva’s career path has been an odd one. After debuting with the ultra-indie Lacapagira in 2000 and eight years after his sophomore effort My Brother-in-Law, one of Italy’s authentic outsiders returns with a film years in the making, which is still searching for a distributor.
With regards to his debut, he’s changed locations (from Bari to Rome), but not the pulp, Tarantino-esque atmospheres. Based on the novel by Giovanni Mastrangelo, Henry focuses on warring groups of drug traffickers fighting for the heroin – in slang, “Henry” – market in the Italian capital.
It’s an old-fashioned noir story (always surprising in Italy, where genre films are rarely made), in which Gianni (Michele Riondino) and his girlfriend Nina (Carolina Crescentini) get sucked into when Gianni goes to his dealer’s house and finds the latter dead his living room. The proof against the unlucky Gianni is overwhelming, but the scrupulous detective Silvestri (Claudio Gioè) wants to get to the heart of the matter with the help of his colleague (Paolo Sassanelli). While the official investigation is underway, Nina investigates as well, as tough at her job (as a fitness instructor) as she is in life.
All this against the backdrop of a Rome “inhabited only by immigrants,” explains the director, be they Apulian or African. “They feel like fish out of water,” adds Piva (who also writes and edits here). Rather than updating the conventions of the old cop drama, this geographical and linguistic mix is instead mostly used to lighten up the film. And the already tenuous tension is forced to cede to robust injection of vernacular comedy.
Blending elements of mystery, comedy and auteur cinema (the characters have long monologues or speak into the camera), the film that emerges is as mixed as the city it wants to depict. Viewers will decide whether this is a vice or a virtue.
The only domestic title in competition at the Turin Film Festival, Henry is produced by Piva’s Seminal Film with Bianca Film, with a contribution from the Ministry of Culture (MiBAC).
