Funeralopolis - A Suburban Portrait
In between Bresso, Sesto San Giovanni and Milan we dive into the lives of Vash and Felce: they play music together and shoot heroin, and they share everything. Their reality sometimes is brutal, sometimes ironic, tragic and romantic. Their eternal rebellion neither has a cause, a reason nor an end. Vash and Felce grew up in Bresso, between the football pitches, graffitis, fights, public housing and occupied apartments. They have met thanks to rap music, murals and the common passions for esotericism and drugs, and they became friends despite their different life paths (Felce is in his thirties and has graduated in Architecture, Vash is younger and dropped school at 14). They record songs, play gigs, and spend time between occasional jobs and dealing. They both come from Bresso, and both share a dream of escaping from the city. They are suburban musicians with a random culture and disorganized friendships. Funeralopolis doesn’t talk about heroin. It isn’t an investigation on the effects of addiction. It doesn’t want to explain or judge or enhance the lifestyle of its protagonists. It is basically a film about two friends. Two guys in the quest to find the meaning of life, until death approaches. They’re lost in an eternal wander in a city that seems like a desert, while talking about sex and religion, doing too much drugs, singing about decay and violence, dancing between the graves in the cemetery.
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Alessandro RedaelliDirector
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Alessandro RedaelliWriter
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Ruggero MelisWriter
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Daniele FagoneWriter
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Barbara GuieuProducer
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Leone BalduzziProducer
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Alessandro RedaelliProducer
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Lorenzo PasseraKey Cast"Himself"
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Andrea PivaKey Cast"Himself"
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Project Type:Documentary, Feature
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Genres:documentary, observational documentary, drama, comedy
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Runtime:1 hour 30 minutes
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Completion Date:June 14, 2017
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Production Budget:25,000 EUR
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Country of Origin:Italy
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Country of Filming:Italy
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Language:Italian
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Shooting Format:Digital / Sony A7S
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Aspect Ratio:1.66:1
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Film Color:Black & White
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Biografilm FestivalBologna
Italy
June 14, 2017
Worldwide Premiere
Official Selection - Best Documentary -
Dok LeipzigLeipzig
Germany
November 1, 2017
International Premiere
Official Selection - Next Masters -
Edera Film FestivalTreviso
Italy
August 4, 2018
Treviso Premiere
Official Selection - Best Feature Film -
Documentaria NotoNoto
Italy
December 14, 2017
Sicily Premiere
Out of Competition
Distribution Information
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Twelve Entertainment, Rai Cinema, 01 DistributionDistributorCountry: ItalyRights: Video / Disc
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K48DistributorCountry: ItalyRights: Theatrical
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ChiliDistributorCountry: ItalyRights: InternetCountry: AustriaRights: InternetCountry: PolandRights: InternetCountry: United KingdomRights: InternetCountry: GermanyRights: Internet
ALESSANDRO REDAELLI is an italian director, writer and editor. He has graduated in editing at I.I.SM. Dudovich and in new media at “Luchino Visconti” cinema school of Milan. He directed his first feature "Funeralopolis - A Suburban Portrait" in 2015, produced by K48 and distributed by Twelve Entertainment, Rai Cinema and 01 Distribution. He directed and edited several short and medium-length films distributed internationally ( "Shock - My Abstraction of Death"; "Pray for Diamonds"; "POE Pieces of Eldritch") and several videoclips for the Milanese indie and hip-hop scene. He has also edited several feature films, including "P.O.E. Project of Evil "and" Red Krokodil ", released in Italian cinemas. He works as a film critic with online publications including SpazioFilm, Through the Black Hole and VR-ITALIA. His next movie will be out in 2020, produced by Withstand Film.
Funeralopolis was carried out with the intention of closely telling the stories and the environment in which our characters live. This closeness is represented through the use of camera, this much into the action that becomes a traveling companion of the two protagonists. Vash and Felce use it as a confessional, addressing the camera as if they were in front of an audience, a crowd of screaming fans, ready to applaud at every act. The choice of describing the world in black and white is dictated by the need of non-aestheticize the images shown and their content, standardizing all the narrated moments: Vash kissing his girlfriend has the same visual weight of Vash vomiting on the street, or Felce injecting heroin. The black and white reduces the complacency of showing the blood of the wounds caused by drugs, creating distance and giving the viewer the chance to watch the events with the knowledge that are real but narrated through the cinema filter. The choice of crushing the characters into the narrow 1,66:1 reflects the discomfort of a group of guys forced into a reality where every breath is tiring, and again, as well as the black and white, it represents a method to not sensationalize the actions in the frame. It is a rare format in cinema (dominated by panoramic formats) and far from the 16:9 format of television.