“Mosquitoes,” filmed also in Ticino, in competition at Locarno

Selected for the international competition of the 78th Locarno Film Festival, the debut feature by Italian directors Valentina and Nicole Bertani, Le bambine (Mosquitoes is the international title), was also filmed in Ticino. Produced by the Italian company Emma Film, it lists Ticino-based Cinédokké among the main co-producers, alongside RSI and the French company Manny Film. Filming in our region was also supported by the Ticino Film Commission through the Mendrisio Film Fund.

The story takes place in 1997. Linda, 8 years old, leaves her wealthy grandmother’s Swiss villa with her mother Eva. In Italy, she befriends Azzurra and Marta and forms a gang to protect each other. They are surrounded by selfish parents with fragile dreams, gossipy neighbors, and a queer babysitter searching for their place in a homophobic world.

In the role of Linda’s wealthy grandmother, the cast features Cristina Donadio. An Italian actress with long experience in film, television, and theater, she is best known for her role as Chanelle in the series Gomorrah. For her, this was a return to Ticino after her experience in Stars, produced by Alberto Meroni and Paolo Meneguzzi and directed by Anna Spacio, an experience she fondly recalled on the Ticino set of Le bambine. “I hope this return is only the second of a long series,” she told us in September. “I’m happy to be back filming here in Italian-speaking Switzerland, in Mendrisio in particular, because it was the heart of the wonderful experience I had with Stars: now I know I have a bit of family in Mendrisio.”

Le bambine will have its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on August 12 at 4:45 PM at the Palexpo (Fevi), with encore screenings on August 13 at 11:15 AM at L’Altra Sala and on August 14 at 9:30 PM at Palacinema 1.