Corsicato starts shoot for Il Volto, backed by new BLS fund

The film tops the list of the first productions to receive funding from Business Location Suditrol (BLS), the new fund announced late 2010, which has financed the picture with $286,000 (€200,000) out of their $7m (€5m) fund.

Volto focuses on a TV presenter (Laura Chiatti) who is married to a plastic surgeon (Alessandro Preziosi). When she gets in a car accident she allows her husband to transform her face in order to get the insurance pay out.

Rome-based Tilde Corsi and Gianni Romoli’s R&C Produzioni produce the film with RAI Cinema; Bavaria Films International is handling world sales.

The film will shoot for 15-20 days in the region, before moving to Rome where it will wrap in July.

The film promises to be another original comedy after Corsicato’s most recent, an engaging, quirky Almadovar-esque comedy Seed Of Discord that featured Alessandro Gassman and Caterina Murino about an infertile Italian macho whose wife becomes pregnant. The film was in Competition at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

Other films, a mix of Italian, German and Austrian projects to receive backing, the first BLS funding slate include:

• Il Regalo Piu’ Bello, a feature directed by Max Nadari receives $307,000 (€215,000) for a January 2012 shoot. Produced by Meditrannea Film the picture stars Alessandro Gassman and Paola Cortellesi about a boy who devises creative methods to fit in at school.
• Nadja & Svetla, a documentary directed by Maura Delpero will receive $43,000 (€30,000) for a project exposing the relationships between the Eastern European immigrants that have increasingly become caretakers of Italy’s elderly during a time that family and social values are shifting here.
• Permafrost, a documentary by Dennis Timm on climatic changes affecting the Alps. The project gets $28,500 (€20,000).
• Schwestern (Sisters) by Anne Wild is a German project by Dreamtool Entertainment, which will receive $286,000 (€200,000). Shooting will be both in Alto Adige and Germany’s Southern Baden Wurttemberg. The film is about a German family who confronts a daughter’s desire to become a nun.
• Geld Regiert Die Welt: Die Fugger (Money Dominates The World: The Fugger’s); by Andre Schafer a documentary from Florian Film in co production with ZDF and WDR which chronicles the fall of the powerful 14th-century Fugger family. The project receives $71,400 (€50,000).
• Porcelain Girl, first work from Alto-Adige resident Anna Wasch, a recent graduate of Rome’s Centro Sperimentale film school. The project will feature Alba Rohrwacher about a young girl oppressed by her mother. The film is produced by Germany’s Pandora Film and receives $57,000 (€40,000).
• Spielplatz Der Helden (Theme Park Of Heroes) produced by KGP Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production from Vienna, Austria is the story of a real life Greenland expedition that receives $28,500 (€20,000).
• Die Rote Wand (The Red Wall) by Hurbert Schonegger Produzione and Geos FilmSan Candido is in development and will receive $21,400 (€15,000).
• Das Dunkle Schiff a first work from Andreas Pichler will be produced by Ma.ja.de filmproduktion out of Leipzig, Germany and will receive $14,000 (€10,000) for the film, which tells the story of a Kurd who crosses Europe.

The next expiration for entries is June 1, 2011 and September 15, 2011.