If minority co-productions prevented Italian cinema from being completely absent from this 76th Berlinale (although its absence was felt and was one of the most discussed topics outside and inside the industry), there is instead one Italian film that represented it by crossing several industry sections dedicated to work-in-progress cinema and future talent. E’ Idda by Irene Dionisio(Berlinale Talents 2019) , starring Tecla Insolia, this year’s Shooting Star, and written by the director and screenwriter together with Marco Borromei, selected at Berlinale Talents.
A totally Italian film, produced by Kino Produzioni and supported by Film Commission Torino Piemonte, IDM Film&Music Commission Südtirol, MIC and Creative Europe. Although it had ‘passed through’ the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2023, where its producer, Giovanni Pompili, returned this year because Kino Produzioni was one of the companies selected for the Company Match program.
Idda, which was in post-production at the time, was also one of the films sold by Rai Cinema International Distribution at theEuropean Film Market: “I ‘discovered’ the Berlinale market, and I saw my big face hugging that of Romana Maggiora Vergano at the Rai Cinema stand!” exclaims with enthusiasm Tecla Insolia, who at 22 has already accumulated a string of successes, culminating in the David di Donatello awards (two won in 2025, to which is added the David Giovani Rivelazioni Italiane) and now in the European Film Promotion program that gives impetus and international visibility to the most promising actors and actresses on the European scene.
Young but at work on sets since half of her existence (“I have been working since I was 11”) and very concrete in spite of a grace that makes her seem almost ethereal: “I have made many films all close together, but now I have stopped a bit, I have dubbed a cartoon(Jumpers, by Pixar, which will be in theaters from March 5, n.ed.)…David’s bonus year is ending, and even wanting to capitalize on this success, the situation is complicated, the fact that there are no Italian films in Berlin says so…In any case, I feel very lucky because so far I have always taken part in projects that really interest me.”
Among them, besides of course The Art of Joy, Familia, and the recent Primavera, Idda certainly has a special place. “It is a story of friendship, unspoken things, memories, where nature plays a predominant role.”
Idda is the pronoun by which Etna is referred to in Catania, “The volcano is the third character, Idda is a feminine entity, and this femininity is an element eviscerated in the film, which tells of a climb up Mount Etna made by two childhood friends who meet again after a long time. It’s as if the volcano reflects the souls of the protagonists, sometimes welcoming, sometimes frightening, the benevolent and stepmotherly nature of Leopardi’s memory.” Says Marco Borromei.
A film where sound will have a special importance. “Being on Etna was a kind of time bubble, it was very hot then very cold, fog popped up and then the sun again. We were in a condition of totally listening to this magnetic place, around which everything revolves. Although it is a totally different film, this experience reminded me of Picnic at Hanging Rock.” Insolia continues, adding, “I hope that seeing it will give me the same emotions that I felt shooting it. It was a really heartfelt project, made by a production that took great care of it, paying attention to everything.”
Marco Borromei is also convinced of this, emphasizing the usefulness of so-called Inspirational Scouting, “those productions that care about writing and authors do them: with Irene Dionisio and Isabella Weber, the head of development for Kino Productions, we spent some time in Catania, went there during the Feast of St. Agatha in early February 2023, and then went to Mount Etna.”
The process of developing the film was particularly thorough, thanks in part to the project’s participation in IDM’s RACCONTI#11 writing workshop: “there was then a pitch, which Irene and John made in front of the professionals at INCONTRI (the industry conference also organized by the South Tyrolean film commission, ed.). With the first draft of the screenplay, we also won the IDM development fund.” Borromei explains.
Finally, Idda was the second project presented by Kino Productions at the Berlinale Co-Production Market (the first was Carlo Sironi’s Quell’estate con Irene ). Pompili is a regular at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, “I also met projects here that I produced, such as Alcarrás (Golden Bear ) and Puan.”
Now, to be selected within Company Match is “a nice endorsement that Kino is a reliable company that has been doing co-productions for a long time, with projects that put quality first.”
Among the projects in the pipeline is Sally Potter ‘s new film, Alma, with Pamela Anderson and an international cast, “which we will shoot this year. We are also co-producing Sergei Loznitsa‘s new documentary, and Rivo Alto, by Clément Cogitore, a co-production with France, Belgium and Germany, which we will shoot in Italy in September, also with a large cast.”
On the new talent front, Kino Productions is at work on Fede Gianni‘s debut feature, The Cascatore, a spin-off of the short Billi the Cowboy, selected in 2024 Critics’ Week – SIC@SIC. “We have also been selected at the Ikusmira development residency, linked to the San Sebastian festival: the director will write it together with a Spanish screenwriter and we have already obtained development funds from Spain.”
Returning instead to South Tyrol, Marco Borromini participated in 2024 in IDM’s short film training program, MASO as co-writer of the short film Coming of Age Haul by Margherita Panizon , which went on to win the fund that the film commission dedicates to short films. Andrea Magnani will produce it for Pilgrim Film, “We are waiting for the results of the ministry, because we would like to shoot it in the next year.”
“With Margherita Panizon we had also written the short film Come le Lumache, which was at SIC in 2022, and now I have scripted her first long film as well, Lo Sconsegnato, set on Asinara in the 1970s, when prisoners, for good behavior, could live on the island and not inside the prison, enjoying some freedom in exchange for agricultural work.” Flaminio Zadara produces it for Dorje Film, and it is supported by the Sardegna Film Commission and the MIC Production Fund.
