Corazones de Mujer

011FILMS PRESENTS
PRESS BOOK
“Corazones de Mujer”
Feature Film
35mm / Color Dolby Digital
Lengh 85’ - 1:1.85 Arabic/Italian with English subtitles
Italy/Morocco 2008
PRODUCTION COMPANY
011films
Via Camponogara 19
12045 Fossano - Italia
Tel. +39 3929710039
Fax. +39 0172691771
[email protected]
www.011films.com
Contact in Berlin:
Cel. +39 392 9710039
WORLD SALES
011films
PRESS OFFICE
Italy / International
STUDIO MORABITO
Tel.: +39 06 5730 0825
Fax : +39 06 5730 0155
[email protected]
www.mimmomorabito.it
Contact in Berlin:
Mimmo Morabito
Rosa Ardia
Vera Usai
Cel.: +39 334 667 8927;
+39 339 288 8063
Aziz Ahmeri as Shakira
SCREENING SHEDULE
Cubix 7 & 8
20:30 Press screening & Industry
13.02.08
Première
15.02.08 CinemaxX 7 20:00 Screening
Screening
16.02.08
17.02.08
CineStar 3 22:45 CineStar 3 17:45
European Film Market
09.02.08
CinemaxX 2
18:50
Deutsche Presse
Silversalt Pr
Claudia Tomassini
Cel.: +49 173 205 5794
[email protected]
Thessa Mooij
Cel.: +49 173 180 6622
[email protected]
www.silversaltpr.com
Press informations are available at:
www.011films.com
www.mimmomorabito.it
www.silversaltpr.com
Ghizlane Waldi as Zina
“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
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THE 58TH BERLINALE SPEAKS ITALIAN IN THE PANORAMA SECTION
THE FILM “CORAZONES DE MUJER” BY K. KOSOOF
(DAVIDE SORDELLA AND PABLO BENEDETTI)
Once upon a time there was
a tailor who made the best
Arab clothing in the entire
city: his name was Shakira
(Aziz Ahmeri) and he was to
make the wedding gown for
a young woman who was
soon to be married: Zina
(Ghizlane Waldi).
The problem was that Zina
had already lost her virginity
and this is forbidden in the
Arab world.
In order to return to
“kilometer zero,” the two
decide to drive an old Alfa
R o m e o s p o r t s c a r f ro m
Torino all the way to Morocco
and… this is the beginning of
a voyage that will save her
life.
As opposed to what the film’s
title and the name of the
director might suggest,
Corazones de Mujer is by two
directors and producers from
Italy, Davide Sordella and
Pablo Benedetti. “K. Kossof” is
their collective stage name and
it means ‘eclipse’ in Arabic.
Corazones de Mujer is a true
story about a transvestite tailor
originally from Morocco and an
Arab bride-to-be who lives in
Torino and has to regain her
lost virginity.
The authors say, “In view of the
film’s themes and context, in
order to give the lead
characters maximum freedom
in telling their story, we
decided to protect them with a
more constructed narrative
framework that seems to be a
fictitious story. An actor can
always be himself, even when
he bares himself on the screen,
because he can tell himself,
‘This isn’t me. I’m acting a
part.’ And this is just what
happens in the daily ‘fiction’ of
the society that surrounds the
protagonists of this story.
‘Corazones de Mujer’ is a film
about the masks, the
appearances, that cover up
sexuality in the Arab world and
beyond.”
After his preceding film, Fratelli
di Sangue, which was
presented in Venice in 2006
and featured Fabrizio Gifuni
and Barbara Bobulova in the
cast, the young director Davide
Sordella returns to the silver
screen with a film he has made
in collaboration with Pablo
Benedetti, and which was
produced by 011Films.
Corazones de Mujer is un
unusual road movie that came
about after an encounter
between K. Kosoof (Davide
Sordella and Pablo Benedetti)
and a transvestite tailor in a
smoky bar late one night in
Torino. The bizarre tale that the
two directors listened to that
night couldn’t remain a secret.
With a movie camera on their
shoulders – a bit like back in
the days of “Neorealism” and
“free cinema” – they went in
s e a r c h o f t h e t a i l o r ’s
hometown, in a voyage
t h ro u g h I t a l y, S p a i n a n d
Morocco that soon
transformed itself into a voyage
in search of themselves, in
which each one, in a different
way, put himself on the line.
Sordella and Benedetti have
chosen non-professional
actors to discuss themes that
are as controversial as they are
up-to-date, like homosexuality,
individual freedom and how
virginity and marriage are
viewed in the Arab world.
During their voyage, they
constructed the story with their
actors, optimizing the
mechanisms of fiction in the
screenplay, which they wrote
themselves. The story, that is
so closely tied to modern
times, is also narrated by an
original soundtrack created by
Enrico Sabena – and soon to
be released by Warner – that
gives a deeper look into the
protagonists through a variety
of styles and ethnic
crossovers, intertwining
ancient musical languages with
modern sounds as it underlines
the universality of pain,
something that unites every
population on Earth.
For more information:
www.011films.com.
The third star of the film:
the old Alfa Romeo Duetto,
much more than just a traveling
companion…
“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
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HOW “CORAZONES DE MUJER” CAME ABOUT
The first meeting was in Torino,
in a Moroccan bar called
l’Haija, near Corso Giulio
Cesare. You enter through a
roll-down shutter, then you go
down a set of stairs leading
into the belly of the city, where
you discover - beneath the
skin, beneath the orderliness –
another world. Here, to the
notes of live music that was
being played among the
narghilés, we met Shakira:
traditional Moroccan clothes
and a flashy blond wig.
Intrigued by our foreign
presence (we were the only
Italians in the entire bar), he
said to us, “If you want, I’ll tell
you the story of my life.” We
listened, and still today we
don’t know how much of that
story was the truth. But right
away it struck us as an
important story, one that
deserved to be told.
And to tell it we needed a
female character from Torino’s
Moroccan community who had
experienced a vicissitude
similar to the one Shakira had
told us about: Ghizlane Waldi.
She, too, is a non-professional
actor, but we were struck by
her spontaneity, her willingness
to bare her soul in front of the
movie camera. It’s strange, but
“A voyage means making choices.”
it turned out to be easier for
them to be themselves in front
of the camera than it is in real
life. Maybe because it’s just a
film, and this conviction – like a
sort of secret pact – let them
say things that they would
have had difficulty saying in a
normal conversation or in
public.
And so we decided to retrace
the voyage that Shakira had
told us about. With a video
camera in hand, we all left
Torino together for Morocco in
an old Alfa Romeo Duetto (like
the one in the film The
Graduate); no screenplay and a
cast that only knew each other
by sight. We didn’t know where
we’d end up but we felt that it
was the right way to fully
experience this profoundly
human voyage. And thus the
story was born, bit by bit,
kilometer by kilometer; we all
put ourselves on the line as we
tried to reduce the boundary
between the person standing
in front of the movie camera
and the person behind it, until
it was completely eliminated.
The story we were expecting to
find changed a lot during our
crossing (like in every true
voyage), but we saw Morocco
– and, above all, we saw
ourselves - through other eyes.
The film’s themes are
obviously very controversial
and complex. We wanted to
touch on them with the light
tones of comedy, while bearing
in mind the seriousness of the
topics. We wanted the same
light touch, and the same
disenchantment, with which
Shakira had won us over.
Usually, we hear stories about
women (and more in general,
about people) from other
cultures who experience a
process of liberation in the
West. But this time the exact
opposite happened. A young
woman who is totally
integrated, born into a normal
bourgeois family, who returns
to her country of origin and
rediscovers her own roots
through other eyes (Shakira’s),
who discovers she is a
different person and decides to
throw off her mask and
confront the truth. This is the
true, fundamental theme: the
freedom to be yourself, to say
what you think, and to do what
you say. A freedom that,
obviously, is conditioned by
the reality surrounding us, but
that has its roots inside us.
And, even though it is
conditioned by the reality
around us, this reality must
start with us.
As we write this article we are
in Japan, and we were struck
by a reflection on the condition
of women that someone here
told us: “It doesn’t matter what
clothes you wear, nor what
music you listen to or what you
do during the day or night…
inside, deep down, every
Japanese woman is still
wearing a kimono.” And this is
why Corazones de Mujer isn’t
just a film about Arab culture,
but more in general, it’s a
universal story that goes
beyond the artificial and social
barriers that we have
constructed.
Davide Sordella and Pablo
Benedetti, late January 2008
“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
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“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
Comments by the actors.
SHAKIRA:
“I remember when we decided to leave for Morocco. It was late summer and we were sitting on a
bench in Torino. The next week we were already in an Alfa Romeo Duetto heading for Spain. We
hardly knew each other, but I decided to take off on this adventure without hesitating, instinctively.
Without really knowing where we’d end up. And, to me, this is what the film is about: it talks about
what’s beneath the skin, deep down, that makes no differentiation between color, race, religion and,
above all, sexual orientation.” (Aziz Ahmeri, this is his debut film)
ZINA:
“It isn’t easy to be listened to, as women, and not just
in our society. To be really listened to and not just out
of politeness, gallantry or politics. To me, the movie
camera is a sort of ‘magic mirror’ in which I can be
myself and say all those things that normally remain
locked up inside women’s gossip. I found the freedom
to always say what I thought, even if some of the
things I said contradicted Shakira (the other lead in
the film), but always with the warmth and respect of
two people who are facing a voyage together. I’d like
to find this same respect and freedom in the everyday
world, beyond the movie camera.”
(Waldi Ghizlane,
this is her debut film)
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THE DIRECTORS: KIFF KOSOOF / BIO-FILMOGRAPHY
DAVIDE SORDELLA
PABLO BENEDETTI
Studied in London at the London International Film
School, directed by Mike Leigh.
MA in directing from the London
International Film School (LFS) with Mike
Leigh.
From 1996 to 2000 he worked in Latin America for
various international agencies and organizations
(Johns Hopkins University, Population Services
International, USAID, GTZ, VIS), directing
documentaries, commercials (approximately 30)
and video clips about AIDS prevention.
From 2000 to 2002 he directed numerous shorts in
various countries (UK, Israel, Nepal, etc.) with an
English production company. One of these short
films, “It’s not me, it’s not you,” won the Kodak
European Showcase Award in 2003 and was
presented at various festivals throughout the world,
including Cannes.
His first feature film, “Fratelli di Sangue,” starring
Fabrizio Gifuni and Barbara Bobulova, was
presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 and
was distributed in Italy in 2007. It was later bought
by Medusa for DVD distribution and by SKY
television.
His second film, “Corazones de Mujer” was
selected for the 2008 Berlin International Film
Festival (Panorama) and will be distributed in
cinemas in 2008.
He is now working in Japan on his third film,
“Sleeping Doll,” an international co-production.
Davide Sordella a.k.a. Kiff Kosoof
In 2003 he began an intense experience with
Lindsay Kemp. In 2004, during a long tour
in Spain and Italy he made “Gota Roja,” a
portrait of this extraordinary artist. This was
the beginning of an in-depth study of
documentaries and their narrative and
technical potential.
The next year, 2005, he directed “Bluemist,”
about the competitive apnea world
champion, Gianluca Genoni. The
documentary was sold the the National
Geographic channel.
He then began collaborating with his former
classmate, Davide Sordella, and with
011films, making the film “Corazones de
Mujer,” a feature film about a Moroccan
transvestite tailor and a young bride-to-be.
The film was shot in Italy, Spain and
Morocco and was selected for the 2008
Berlin International Film Festival, for the
Panorama section.
He is now preparing a project for another
feature film.
Pablo Bendetti a.k.a. Kiff Kosoof
“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
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“CORAZONES DE MUJER” - CREDITS
CAST
Aziz Ahmeri as Shakira
Ghizlane Waldi as Zina
Mohammed Wajid as Shakira’s kid
Medi & Hoja as themselves
Music written, orchestrated by enrico sabena
Recorded and mixed at connection studio –
saluzzo (italy) by enrico sabena with the assistance of davide
balangero.
Mastered at the connection studio and at
CREW
logical box – genova (italy) with alberto parodi
A film by K. Kosoof
Musicians:
A 011films production
enrico sabena piano, keyboards, programming,
Authors & producers
harmonica.
pablo benedetti & david sordella
Mattia sismonda: viola and violin
Marco castellano: double bass
011films producer: flavio sordella
Davide borra: accordion
Administrator: allasia anna maria
Luca pirozzi: acoustic guitar Associate producer: enrico sabena
Daniele cuccotti (hederix plenn) : acustic guitar
Account: confcooperative cuneo
Toni mancuso: trumpet and cornet
Location manager: waldi ahmed
Bruno mattio : clarinet
Michele chiaravalloti: clarinet
Cinematography: pablo benedetti
Gabriella brun : flute and ghironda
Camera assistant: carlo cianti
Marco lovera: bagpipe
Animation: paolo bertola
Samuele ballari: alto sax
Scene photographer: carlo cianti
Davide castagno: tenor sax
Art direction: francesca fusari
Aldo barberis: trombone
Dresses: ashylondon
Giulio barale: electric piano
Wigs: audello
Bartolo costamagna: electric guitar
Davide balangero: electric bass
Sound: maria da silva
Diego pernici: percussions
Sound editing: david sordella
Roberto testa: drums
Voices dubbed at connection studio – saluzzo
Special vocal interpretation by:
Film mixed by enrico sabena at connection Rosella pellerino
studio – saluzzo
Chiara rosso (hederix plenn)
Dolby editing at: augustus color - roma
Majdoulin
Moukarzel lina and jihad Editor: david sordella
Apple tecnician: renzo tavanti
Colorist: pablo benedetti
All music produced by enrico sabena
Post-production at 011films
Laboratory: augustus color – roma
Marketing: raffaele cardarelli
Lab coordination: alessandro pelliccia
Transports: chieri fuoristrada
Insurance: ras fossano
Filmed in location at:
Torino – Italy
Almeria – Spain
Fes – Morocco
Khouribga – Morocco
Merzouga – Morocco
Tamariz – Morocco
El Jadida – Morocco
Casablanca – Morocco
Davide Sordella & Pablo Benedetti a.k.a. Kiff Kosof
“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
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“CORAZONES DE MUJER”
a film by K. Kosoof
They’ve begun their voyage…
They’ve put themselves on the line...
PRESS BOOK
Page 13