"Forma del primo movimento" by Tommaso Donati

The documentary "Forma del primo movimento" by Ticino director Tommaso Donati, produced in collaboration with Noha Film (Lugano) and shot in Ticino, will have its world premiere at the Solothurn Film Days in competition for the Opera Prima award, endowed with 20,000 francs that rewards the first feature films by young filmmakers.

The project of Tommaso Donati, a film director graduate in film studies from Eicar in Paris who lives and works in Lugano, stems from his interest in following the Ticino theatre company and collective Giullari di Gulliver. The film begins with the theatrical rehearsals filmed in Mendrisio at the Torriani Foundation gymnasium, then moves outdoors inside the Parco Casvegno, which is part of the Socio-Psychiatric Organisation complex also in Mendrisio, and in other scattered places such as Balerna railway station. Moreover, some scenes were shot in Lugano, in the foyer La Gente of the Fondazione Diamante.

Synopsis

The film follows the rehearsals of a future theatre performance. Through body movement, the protagonists form a tension-filled structure and try to evoke past stories. The actors express the uniqueness of their bodies and create opportunities in the theatre space for these diversities to meet. They focus on their bodies; it is the means they have to get to know themselves, the working space and their companions. But also the means to relate to the real world, which lies beyond the windows and walls of the structure where they live. Everyone, in the end, will try to direct their own world, through unusual gestures, escapes or words now almost forgotten.  

The title refers to the sonata form (also called the first movement form), a musical structure that consists of three main sections: the exposition, the development and the reprise.

Screenings

20 January, 15:45 at Palace
23 January, 12:45 pm at Capitol

More information on the Solothurn Swiss Film Days website.