"Il Cileno" by Sergio Castro-San Martín — a film shot in part in Piemonte over five weeks, with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte and the patronage of the Città di Torino — will have its world premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival in the Piazza Grande section.
The screening is scheduled for Thursday 13 August at 9:30 PM in Piazza Grande.
The feature film "Il Cileno", directed by Chilean filmmaker Sergio Castro-San Martín, who also wrote the story and screenplay together with Simona Nobile, is an international co-production between Italy, Switzerland and Chile, produced by dispàrte, EQUECO and Cinédokké in association with the Piemonte-based company Redibis Film. The film centres on Aldo Marin, a young socialist who in 1976 flees Pinochet's Chile to seek refuge in Italy, in a turbulent Torino marked by the political tensions of that decade. The lead roles are played by Camilo Arancibia and Sara Serraiocco, with Gaetano Bruno, Andrew Bargsted and the participation of Lorenzo Richelmy.
Produced by Alessandro Amato, Luigi Chimienti, Pablo Calisto, Tomás Alzamora and Michela Pini, "Il Cileno" is a production by dispàrte, EQUECO and Cinédokké in association with Redibis Film by Daniele Segre and Daniele De Cicco, in co-production with RSI RADIOTELEVISIONE SVIZZERA / SRG SSR. The film was made with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte – Piemonte Film TV Development Fund, and with the contribution of FESR Piemonte 2021–2027 – Piemonte Film TV Fund. Post-production and visual effects were handled by the Torino-based company Imago VFX by Fabrizio Nastasi.
The film was produced and distributed with the contribution of the Fondo per lo sviluppo degli investimenti nel cinema e nell'audiovisivo MiC – Ministero della Cultura DGCA, Creative Europe Media, Fondo de Fomento Audiovisual – MINCAP, Corfo, Ibermedia, Ufficio federale della cultura (UFC) – Repubblica e Cantone Ticino / Fondo cantonale per la cinematografia – Ticino Film Commission, in co-production with RSI RADIOTELEVISIONE SVIZZERA / SRG SSR. Development and post-production selections include: EAVE PUENTES workshop 2019; Ventana Sur 2019; EAVE PUENTES Italia 2021; MIA Co-Production Market 2023; MIA C EU SOON 2025.
The Torino shoot — the heart of the story, as the protagonist sets out to build a new life — took place across numerous areas of the city centre and outskirts, including the Palazzo dei Lavori Pubblici of the Città di Torino, Piazza San Giovanni, the Falchera lakes and Piazza Giovanni Astengo, the Quadrilatero Romano, the Sottoponte Regina Margherita and the Murazzi del Po, the Giardini del Fante, the Cortile del Maglio, and the Aula Magna di Anatomia Patologica of the Department of Medical Sciences.
The crew brought together a strong contingent of Piemonte-based professionals alongside Chilean and Swiss colleagues, including screenwriter Simona Nobile, production manager Danilo Goglio, location manager Davide Spina, costume designer Silvia Nebiolo, production designer Marco Ascanio Viarigi, casting director Luana Velliscig and sound designer Mirko Guerra.
1976. In the midst of Chilean miners' protests against Pinochet's dictatorship, Aldo Marín, a young socialist with expertise in explosives, is forced into exile. Leaving behind his wife and newborn child, he struggles to survive by his wits in a Torino torn apart by the tensions of the Years of Lead. Everything changes when he meets Luciana, a doctor with ties to anarchist circles who performs clandestine abortions. She offers him the chance to be reunited with his family — but in return, Aldo will have to dust off a talent that is also his greatest curse: making bombs.
From 27 August, "Il Cileno" will be distributed in Italy and abroad by Fandango.
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Also representing Piemonte at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, the Piemonte-based company Redibis Film by Daniele Segre and Daniele De Cicco will be present with the feature film "Roma elastica", directed by Bertrand Mandico, presented out of competition. The film, which had its world premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in the Official Selection – Séances de Minuit, is a tribute to the history of Italian cinema and the city of Rome, centred on an actress about to shoot her final film in Rome in the 1980s.
Photographs by Marco Piovanotto
