L’intervallo

a film by Leonardo Di Costanzo
Italy/Switzerland/Germany 2012, 90′, o.v. Italian

Festivals & Prizes

69. Venice International Film Festival, Section “Orizzonti”
FIPRESCI Award
Francesco Pasinetti Award
Fedic Award
Lanterna Magica Award
CICT-Unesco Enrico Fulchignoni Award
AIF-Forfilmfest Award
UK-Italy Creative industries Award for the Best Innovative Budget to the producers Carlo Cresto-Dina and Tiziana Soudani – Venice IFF
De Sica Award
Festival International d’Estoril (Portugal) – Best film Award
25. Castellinaria Festival International Cinema giovane Bellinzona (competition 16-20) – Tre Castelli Award
Artistic Award to the Swiss producer by SSR SRG Télévision suisse, Solothurn 2013
27. Bozner Filmtage, 2013 – Best film Award
Ciak d’oro 2013 for the best first feature film
Ciak d’oro 2013 for the best producers to Tiziana Soudani and Carlo Cresto-Dina
Davide of Donatello 2013 for the best first feature film
Golden Globes International Press 2013 – Grand Prix for the best film
International film Festival Valladolid (Spain) 2013 – Best film Award

Synopsis:

A boy and a girl held captive up in a huge abandoned building in a slum. They must keep an eye on one another. She is a prisoner; he has been forced by the clan’s boss to be her guard.

Both are too adult for their years. Veronica acts like a woman of the world, Salvatore like a little man devoted to work and routine. And so they react differently to the ordeal of their imprisonment: Veronica is restless and rebellious; Salvatore more submissive and accommodating, whether for fear or for realism one isn’t sure. Both are victims but seem to blame each other for what’s happened.

The film was shot almost entirely in the former Leonardo Bianchi psychiatric hospital in Naples, a structure covering more than 200,000 square meters built in the 18th century and long abandoned.