December 1999. I remember that, amidst the Millennium Bug anxiety, I went to the birthday of Enrico, a kid who lived with his family in an old and isolated farmhouse.

Directed by: Francesco Sossai

Written by: Francesco Sossai

Produced by: Cecilia Trautvetter, François-Pierre Clavel

Cinematography: Giulia Schelhas

Editing: Francesco Sossai

Production Design: Paula Meuthen

Costume Design: Ilaria Marmugi

Make-Up: Giorgia Liguori

Sound: Sebastian Pablo Poloni, Artiom Constantinov

Original Score: Fabio De Min

Visual Effects: Gilberto Arpioni

Cast: Nicola Cannarella, Elia Luciani, Denis Fasolo, Luisa Trigilla, Livio Pacella, Matthias Tormen

Original Title: IL COMPLEANNO DI ENRICO

Film Production Countries: Germany, France, Italy

Statement of the Director/s
IL COMPLEANNO DI ENRICO is a film about memory and how we remember things. The events in the film are autobiographical and I tried to film them faithfully. However, I realised that the only way to do this was to stage those particular distortions typical of memories: the accentuation of seemingly unimportant details, the landscapes and places filtered through emotion, a certain perturbing atmosphere that is not subject to the laws of logic. It is a film about being a child, about fascination at other people's homes, about strict fathers and alcoholic fathers, about grandmothers who disappear into the woods and mothers who have to scream to be heard. Shooting this film was for me like finding an old elementary school notebook or reading a postcard from a bygone era, caught in a moment of transition: the last days of the millennium, between the end of the war in Yugoslavia and the beginning of a world of terror and uncertainty symbolized, in the story, by the Millennium Bug. To tell the story, I chose to point the camera, once again, at the landscape of my native country, a place at once familiar to me and charged with horror.

Biography of the Director/s
FRANCESCO SOSSAI was born in the Italian Dolomites area. He started filming short films at an early age. He moved to Rome where he graduated in English and German Literatures. He was then admitted at the DFFB – German Television Film Academy in Berlin. His first feature length film "Altri Cannibali" celebrated its world premiere at PÖFF 2021 where it was awarded as „Best First Feature“. The film subsequently had its Italian premiere at the 39th Torino Film Festival and was screened worldwide in numerous other festivals. Francesco is currently working on his second feature „Le città della pianura“, a co-production between Italy and France. He lives in Veneto, Italy.

Filmography of the Director/s
2017 - A view of the Grand Canal
2021 - Other Cannibals

Production Company:
DFFB - German Film and Television Academy Berlin
Cecilia Trautvetter
Phone: +491777530215
Website: dffb.de