Under a leaden sky, among the apocalyptic presages of a Naples at the height of its degradation, Sergio, a taxi driver, receives news which overwhelms him. Nothing can ever be as it was.
Now Sergio looks at himself in the mirror and what he sees is a forty-year-old man, who has turned his back on music and has become lost in the limbo of his city.
The taxi becomes the microcosm within which he withdraws to escape his world, but into which, the world comes and goes through his passengers.
As the storm rages outside, the car begins to crowd with memories, hopes, regrets, and new opportunities.
Now he knows who the passengers are: they are souls, ghosts, memories, paths. Or they are messengers of a sun rising elsewhere, bringing with it the revelation of what is beyond the confines of his windshield.
Sooner or later the rain will cease and the sky will open. And from there, the end will come. Or the music will return.

Direction: Alessandro Rak

Script: Alessandro Rak, Luciano Stella

Production: Luciano Stella, Paola Tortora

Editing: Marino Guarnieri

Production Design: Alessandro Rak, Dario Sansone

Animation: Alessandro Rak, Ivan Cappiello, Dario Sansone, Marino Guarnieri, Annarita Calligaris, Ivana Verze, Laura Sammati, Antonia Emanuela Angrisani, Corrado Piscitelli, Flavio Di Biase, Giorgio Siravo, Sergio Chimenti, Ilaria Jones, Antonio Funaro, Danilo Florio, Mirko Prota, Alberto Panico, Paolo Acampora, Marco Iannaccone

Sound: Luigi Scialdone, Andrea Cutillo, Dario Della Monica, Francesco Omodeo

Original Score: Antonio Fresa, Luigi Scialdone, Antonin Stahly

Cast: Nando Paone, Riccardo Polizzy Carbonelli, Leandro Amato, Jun Ichikawa, Renato Carpentieri, Patrizia Di Martino, Lucio Allocca

Original Title: L'ARTE DELLA FELICITÀ

Original Language: Italian

Film Production Country: Italy

Website: www.madinnaples.com

Social Media: www.facebook.com/ArtedellaFelicitailFilm

Statement of the Director/s
This is a story which begins from below, as from below rises what one yearns for and then fills with that which breathes without forgetting what it was aspiring to. For if happiness came from above it would greatly grieve those who with open arms have waited long, not to mention the ones who, on the other hand, have patiently worked hard never chancing the leap.
And then facing certain subjects, which measure so many meters, of which we see merely the feet, one feels too low and it serves little to raise our voices if one is not ready to clamber up. And if Happiness is the craft of those who sow smiles, clambering up is certain to be the Art of those who envy the craftsman.
Thus one starts from what one has: one’s own land, experiences, the expectations of relatives and friends, to narrate the dilemma of a life: whether it be nobler to cram into the soul the suggestions and ghosts of an inauspicious city life or to take arms against a sea of feelings and by narrating, end them.
The story begins from a title, chosen by a producer, taken perhaps from a book and then it goes backwards, in search of its author and beyond, in search of inspiration, but then leaves again to talk about the one who is far from the light and thanks only to the awareness of pain, does he decide at last to go seeking him.
Therefore this is the story of a revolution, of a useless journey around one’s own sun, or better still, of a revelation, of what the world is when it ceases to turn. Of how living is just a perception and dying just a manner of change. And every scene, and every selection, and every sign, are impressed on the screen like damage which must be remedied (time: one year), before the sense of things loses sense, loses time and then its scalp.
And while the king loses his scepter and the people take back the realm, I lose the thread and for rhymes I refer you to the score in which a director’s notes find respite, saving you from this illiterate anxiety.
Enjoy the film.

Biography of the Director/s
Alessandro Rak is a Neapolitan writer and director born in 1977.
Following his family’s footsteps, he has always sketched, so he took up his artistic path by devoting his time to drawing cartoons and illustrations, to later arrive at animation. Once completing high school, he was admitted to the Animation course at the in Rome, from which he graduated in 1999. For his works Again and Looking Death Window , he was awarded: the Grand Award of the Jury at the Castelli Animati International Animated Film Festival, the Cilect International Prize and the First Place Award at the Festival of Film Schools in Mexico City.
He returned to Naples in 2000 to teach illustration at the National School of Comix and began his collaboration with his friend and colleague Andrea Scoppetta. In the period from 2001 to 2011, he put on art exhibitions at the Not Gallery, he published comics and illustrated books such as Ark for Grifo, Bye Bye Jazz for Lavieri, a Skeleton Story for GG Studio and the storyboard for the film La Volpe a Tre Zampe by Sandro Dionisio.
He has been responsible for the character design and the artistic direction of animation projects, among which: Il Piccolo Sansereno and Il Segreto dell’Uovo di Virgilio. He realized animated short films like Và , winning First Prize at the Mediterranean Video Festival, and Teste al Muro, selected at the Festival di Palazzo Venezia; he has done musical and artwork videoclips for musicians among which: Kanzone su Londra by the 24 Grana - winner of the MEI award for Best Editing, La Paura by the Bisca, ‘O Sciore e ‘o Viento and Donna Maria by the Foja, Un Posto Ideale by Giovanni Block, Carcarà by the Gentlemen's Agreement. He has directed the opening sequence of Cartoon's on the bay 2014.
The Art of Happiness is his first animated feature film.

Awards Won
Venice International Film Festival 70th
Young Award - Venice 70th
Fedic Special Mention - Venice70th

Raindance Festival of London 21 th - Best Debut Award

Anima International Animation Film Festival of Brussels 2014 - Audience award

Ciak d'oro 2014

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Press:
Fosforo Press
Manuela Cavallari
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Rome, 00165, Italy
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Phone: +39.349.6891660
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