Venice’s 2022 Out Of Competition titles include films from Walter Hill, Olivia Wilde, Sergei Loznitsa, Oliver Stone and Golden Lion Award honouree Paul Schrader. The Venice Film Festival runs August 31-September 10.
Bobi Wine Ghetto President (Uganda-UK-US)
Dirs. Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo
Ugandan pop star turned politician Bobi Wine (real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) has been repeatedly arrested due to his anti-corruption protests, including after his disputed loss in the country’s 2021 presidential elections. This documentary depicts Wine’s rise from the slums, and his fight — alongside wife Barbie — against the system. Co-director and journalist Bwayo reportedly shed blood during filming, struck by a rubber bullet, and last year was cleared of ‘unlawful assembly’ for shooting a scene in Kampala. Wine is scheduled to attend Venice, and expect a live performance. John Battsek produces alongside co-director Sharp.
Contact: John Battsek, Ventureland
Call Of God (Est-Lith-Kyrg)
Dir. Kim Ki-duk
The posthumous work of Korea’s Kim, who died from complications caused by Covid-19 in December 2020, was completed with the help of Artur Veeber, Estonian co-producer of Oscar-nominated Tangerines. While the plot is under wraps, the Russian-language film was shot in Kyrgyzstan with local actor Abylai Maratov and Kazakhstan’s Zhanel Sergazina. Kim has won awards for his often violent and dark works such as Pieta (Venice Golden Lion, 2012). He worked mostly abroad in recent years following accusations of sexual assault filed against him in South Korea — later dropped through lack of evidence — with credits including Dissolve in Kazakhstan.
Contact: Alain Veeber, MTU Otaku
A Compassionate Spy (US-UK)
Dir. Steve James
Documentarian James first gained prominence in 1994 with high-school basketball documentary Hoop Dreams, which won the audience award at Sundance and was nominated for the editing Oscar. A Compassionate Spy is his first feature since the Oscar-nominated Abacus: Small Enough To Jail premiered at Toronto six years ago and his first time in Venice. The documentary traces the life of a former Manhattan Project physicist who passed on secrets to the Soviet Union and lived the rest of his life under FBI surveillance and suspicion. Participant produces.
Contact: Participant (international); Cinetic Media; Participant (both US)
Dead For A Dollar (US)
Dir. Walter Hill
Hill once said “every film I’ve done has been a western” — referring to a canon ranging in subject from wild west outlaws (The Long Riders) to urban street gangs (The Warriors). He returns again to the western genre, with a cast led by Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe and Rachel Brosnahan, in this 1897-set drama about a bounty hunter searching for a businessman’s missing wife. Producers include Chaos, A Film Company’s Carolyn McMaster, Myriad Pictures’ Kirk D’Amico, Quiver’s Jeff Sackman and Berry Meyerowitz, Polaris Pictures’ Jeremy Wall, and Neil Dunn. Quiver Distribution has US rights; Universal Content Group has rights in Italy.
Contact: Myriad Pictures
Don’t Worry Darling (US)
Dir. Olivia Wilde
Wilde follows her feature directing debut Booksmart with a bigger-scale film rewritten by Booksmart co-scribe Katie Silberman from Carey and Shane Van Dyke’s 2019 Black List screenplay. Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles) live in a seemingly perfect town built and owned by Jack’s employer, but then Alice experiences cracks in her utopian existence. Chris Pine, Gemma Chan and Wilde also star, while Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Miri Yoon produce alongside Wilde and Silberman. New Line won the 1950s-set film in a bidding war, and Warner Bros releases in cinemas from September 22 before it segues to HBO Max.
Contact: Warner Bros
Dreamin’ Wild (US)
Dir. Bill Pohlad
Better known for his producing credits (including The Tree Of Life and 12 Years A Slave), Pohlad makes occasional forays into directing — most recently with Brian Wilson biographical drama Love & Mercy (2014). This third outing as director likewise has a musical subject: duo Donnie and Joe Emerson, whose late-1970s output was largely overlooked until it was rediscovered decades later. Casey Affleck (also serving as an executive producer) and Walton Goggins star as the bothers, with Noah Jupe and Jack Dylan Grazer as younger versions, and the cast also includes Zooey Deschanel. Zurich Avenue and River Road co-finance.
Contact: CAA Media Finance
Dry (It)
Dir. Paolo Virzi
Veteran Tuscan director Virzi (Like Crazy, Human Capital) turns his hand to the post-apocalypse genre in this drama set in a Rome that has suffered three years without rain (not a far-fetched scenario these days). Monica Bellucci stars as one of several characters trying to get by in the waterless city. Dry (Siccità) is one of four films in Venice this year to be co-produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa of Fremantle offshoot Wildside. Vision Distribution, which also handles sales, will release in Italy on September 29.
Contact: Catia Rossi, Vision Distribution
Freedom On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom (Ukr-UK-US)
Dir. Evgeny Afineevsky
Following his two earlier documentaries about Ukraine — the Oscar-nominated Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom (about the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests) and Pray For Ukraine — Afineevsky now presents this examination of the 2022 Russian invasion of the country. The film’s Ukraine-UK-US production team has documented the personal stories of families, soldiers, doctors, volunteers and journalists caught up in the conflict, with the most recent interview conducted on August 9. US-based producers include MakeMake Entertainment and Diamond Docs.
Contact: Bart Walker, The Gersh Agency bwalker@gersh.com
The Hanging Sun (It-UK)
Dir. Francesco Carrozzini
After a 2016 documentary about his mother — legendary Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani — photographer and music-video director Carrozzini makes his fiction feature debut with this Sky Original drama, adapted from a Jo Nesbo novel about a man on the run from his mob boss father in a remote part of Norway. Alessandro Borghi (Sky series Devils) stars alongside Jessica Brown Findlay, Sam Spruell, Peter Mullan and Charles Dance. Chosen to close the festival, The Hanging Sun was produced by Sky with Cattleya (part of ITV Studios) and Groenlandia. Vision Distribution will roll the film out in Italian cinemas on September 12 before its streaming debut later this year.
Contact: NBCUniversal
In Viaggio (It)
Dir. Gianfranco Rosi
In the nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis has already visited 53 countries. Two years after bringing Notturno to Venice’s Competition, award-winning documentarian Rosi returns to an out of competition slot with this study of a much-travelled Pope on the road. Composed partly from footage shot by Rosi himself (up to and including the pontiff’s recent Canadian trip) and partly from archive material, the film was produced by Rosi’s regular partners Stemal Entertainment and Rai Cinema, and will be released in Italy by 01 Distribution on October 4, the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Contact: The Match Factory
The Kiev Trial (Neth-Ukr)
Dir. Sergei Loznitsa
Back in Venice for the first time since 2019’s State Funeral, Loznitsa brings this harrowing documentary charting the 1946 trial of Nazi officials who were prosecuted by the Soviets for crimes recounted in his previous documentary Babi Yar. Context. The Ukrainian filmmaker’s last documentary The Natural History Of Destruction premiered in Cannes’ Special Screenings selection this year. The Kiev Trial is lead produced by his own Netherlands-based production company Atoms & Void.
Contact: Atoms & Void
The Last Days Of Humanity (It)
Dirs. Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo
A cult figure in Italy, admired abroad by Bela Tarr among others, critic, filmmaker and festival director Ghezzi smuggled the avant-garde into mainstream Italian TV from the late 1980s onwards with the series Fuori Orario. Cose (Mai) Viste (championing arthouse cinema) and Blob (a satirical montage of Italian TV shows). Now he, fellow cultural pundit Gagliardo and 15 assistants have mined 700 hours of video shot by Ghezzi since 1979 to create an impressionistic cinematic fresco with a three-hours-plus running time. Partly crowdfunded, the film was produced by Matango, Rai Cinema and Luce Cinecitta.
Contact: Matango
Living (UK)
Dir. Oliver Hermanus
A rare film in the Venice official selection that has already premiered at a high-profile festival, this latest from South Africa’s Hermanus arrives on the Lido eight months after its Sundance debut. Inclusion, says Venice director Alberto Barbera, is in tribute to 2022 jury member Kazuo Ishiguro — he adapted the screenplay for this remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952). In post-Second World War England, Bill Nighy stars as a buttoned-up civil servant who learns he has one year left to live. Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley produce for Number 9 Films, alongside Film4 and Ingenious Media. Sony Pictures Classics has US and various other territory rights, and plans a Stateside release on December 23.
Contact: Rocket Science
Master Gardener (US)
Dir. Paul Schrader
Hot on the heels of Venice 2021 Competition title The Card Counter, Schrader returns to the Lido where he will also receive the honorary Golden Lion award. Joel Edgerton stars as a horticulturist whose life is turned upside down when he is ordered by his estate-owner employer (Sigourney Weaver) to take in her great niece as an apprentice. Production companies involved are the US-based Curmudgeon Films and Australia’s Kojo Studios.
Contact: HanWay Films
The Matchmaker (It)
Dir. Benedetta Argentieri
Argentieri was one of three directors behind Our War (Venice 2016). Now the documentarian is back alone, once more in an out of competition slot, with this study of notorious London-raised Isis ‘matchmaker’ Tooba Gondal, who allegedly recruited teenage girls to become the wives of jihadi fighters. Argentieri interviewed Gondal in Syria before she was deported to France at the end of 2019. The film is produced by Domenico Procacci and Laura Paolucci at Fandango, which also handles world sales.
Contact: Fandango Sales
Music For Black Pigeons (Den)
Dirs. Jorgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed
Danish veterans Leth (The Five Obstructions) and Koefoed (The Lost Leonardo) co-direct this music documentary that aims for a wider scope. Talking to world-class jazz musicians such as Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz and Midori Takada, and Danish composer Jakob Bro, the filmmakers attempt to explore what it means to be a musician and if it is possible to put the essence of music into words. Emile Hertling Péronard, who premiered Ainara Vera’s documentary Polaris in Cannes’ Acid section this year, produces.
Contact: Emile Hertling Péronard
Nuclear (US)
Dir. Oliver Stone
Stone made waves in Venice back in 1994 with Natural Born Killers, winning the jury prize as well as best actress for Juliette Lewis. This will be his second time at the festival with a documentary, following 2009’s South Of The Border. Here, the filmmaker explores whether nuclear energy can save humanity from the climate crisis, also looking at how a PR campaign largely funded by oil interests sowed fear about low-level radiation.
Contact: Bart Walker, The Gersh Agency
Pearl (US)
Dir. Ti West
West brings his unsettling brand of horror back to the Lido for the first time since The Sacrament in 2013. Mia Goth reprises her role from this year’s SXSW slasher film X, in which she played one half of an elderly couple who terrorise cast and crew shooting an adult film on their property. The new feature explores Pearl’s origins as a young woman growing up in the same house seen in X as she dreams of escaping her parents and making it in Hollywood. US companies Little Lamb, Bron Collective and A24 all produced with the latter also distributing the title in the US.
Contact: A24
When The Waves Are Gone (Phi-Fr-Port-Den-Sing)
Dir. Lav Diaz
Filipino master Diaz’s first international co-production, also his first with post-production in Portugal and France, stars John Lloyd Cruz from his 2016 Golden Lion winner The Woman Who Left. Shot on 16mm and running to more than three hours, the black-and-white film noir follows a man returning home to seek revenge after imprisonment. The project is a beneficiary of the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ international co-production fund (ICOF). Shamaine Buencamino and Ronnie Lazaro co-star.
Contact: Films Boutique
Profiles by: Ellie Calnan, Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Charles Gant, Jeremy Kay, Geoffrey Macnab, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Orlando Parfitt, Jonathan Romney, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
No comments yet