Minerva heads to Cannes with Tatanka, What A Beautiful Day

Minerva Pictures Group is heading to Cannes market bringing two hot titles in their market debut.

Giuseppe Gagliardi’s Tatanka, taken from the short story Tatanka Scatenato, written by hard-hitting Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano. The title is part of Saviano’s Gomorrah follow up La Bellezza E L’inferno (Beauty And Hell).

Tatanka is a return to Naples Camorra mafia-ridden territory with the true-life story of champion boxer Clemente Russo who literally used his fists to fight his way out of the mafia and to winning a silver Olympic medal in 2008.

Gianluca Curti, chairman of Minerva Pictures Group said, “We are excited to meet the challenge of bringing this new film to the Cannes market from a story by Roberto Saviano after the film Gomorra earned $45 million world wide.”

Tatanka is the Sioux word for the bison that are sacred to American Indians, which Russo on his website says represented his ‘keeping his head low’ style of fighting. Russo and well-regarded Italian actor Giorgio Colangeli are featured in the picture.
Market screenings for Tatanka will be at the Olympia at 8 pm May 12 and 16.

Tatanka is Giuseppe Gagliardi’s second after his The True Legend of Tony Vilar, a mockumentary about a singer who tracks the real Tony Vilar’s life from Italy to Argentina to New York, which received a warm reception from critics.

Minerva will also have a the market debut for the top Italian grosser of all time and 2011 run away hit What A Beautiful Day, which has earned $52m and which dominated the opening frame of this year.

Curti says they signed the deal to act as world sales with producers TaoDue “two days ago.”

What A Beautiful Day is a farcical look at a serious subject of terrorism plots in Europe, and focuses on a Muslim brother-sister duo who conspire to blow up the spire on top of Milan’s Duomo. They use a daft security guard, who falls for the girl, in order to carry out their plans.

“We are brining two colossal Italian films to the Cannes market - it’s been an excellent year for Italian cinema and we hope to meet the expectations of these films,” Curti said.

Day will be screened at the Olympia on May 13 and 15 at 8pm.

Minerva is also bringing the world premier restoration of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 Il Conformista, as part of their Minerva Classics label, which also has a screening at Cannes as part of the Italian director receiving the honorary Palme d’Or.