Daniele Ciprì

Pietro and Eleonora, both avid gardeners, are strangers who only meet because their two terraces are close to each other. The relationship that grows between them helps them to alleviate the pain each feels over something secret and very serious, a pain both try to hide from themselves and those around them. In this limbo they inhabit, the two make a stab at finding happiness together, until their paths diverge once more.

Inside a warehouse in Palermo, a group of people smashes a man’s arm to pieces with a wheelie bag packed with weights. This is the method used by an amateur criminal organization that fractures the limbs of its willing victims before staging fake accidents and raking in the insurance payouts. Vincenzo recruits the individuals from among the down-and-outs that haunt the city streets, where Luisa is a habitué, since she gets her crack there. Vincenzo’s problems suddenly get worse, though, after a series of mistakes shut him out of the gang, and Luisa is now his only chance: he convinces her to have her bones broken.

A shy 17-year-old girl playing classical piano discovers soul music through a strange friendship with an old rocker in a summer that will change her life.

In one of Rome’s suburbs, a multiethnic and diverse neighborhood, a mother and her two sons are evicted from their home. The two brothers, convinced that it is being reassigned to an immigrant family, will decide to take justice into their own hands. They will do anything to take their home back.

In the bowels of a city of the dead, in a world that has been ravaged and is now unrecognizable, Marcello lives surrounded by Sicilian puppets. Time and captivity have twisted him; in order to survive in a hostile, incomprehensible environment, he goes ahead with a diabolical plan to obtain a weapon that will protect him and give him power. Things will work out somewhat differently.

Valerio and his six-year-old son, Carlo, live in the attic above the apartment they've been evicted from. Every time new tenants arrive, they terrify them by pretending to be ghosts, in the hopes of being able to move back "downstairs". To Carlo, it's just a game that protects him from their poverty and his motherless condition. It even works, for a while, until Myriam and her daughter Emma arrive, in flight from her abusive husband. And Myriam's not afraid of ghosts…

Italia, año 1936. Giovanni Comini acaba de ser ascendido al cargo de Federal, el más joven en Italia. Es trasladado a Roma para una delicada misión: debe vigilar al escritor Gabriele D'Annunzio y asegurarse de que no dé ningún tipo de problema. D'Annunzio, un poeta reconocido a nivel nacional, está cada vez más inquieto y Benito Mussolini teme que pueda perjudicar la alianza con la Alemania nazi.

It follows Gaia, who works in a funeral home and one day something unexpected happens.

Early one morning, in an unspecified and seemingly far off time, a 12 year old boy, together with some friends, is searching a thick forest for objects of value. There is a lot of fog. The boy goes off by himself to another part of the wood and stands admiring an antique object he has found at the foot of a tree. His happy expression turns to one of curiosity as he is distracted by some high pitched cries which come and go intermittently.

Un ladrón y un sacerdote terminan transportados mágicamente en la Palestina del año 0, donde tendrán que asegurarse de que la Natividad siga su curso.

Once Don Gino discovers his son's homosexuality, he'll have to choose between family and respect.

Capossela denounces the impossibility for mankind to realize the Christian precept: "Love your neighbor as yourself". Thus Christ renounced his mission, made himself poor and ended up poor man. And now he is silent, while the man screams as loud as he can.

Capossela denounces the impossibility for mankind to realize the Christian precept: "Love your neighbor as yourself". Thus Christ renounced his mission, made himself poor and ended up poor man. And now he is silent, while the man screams as loud as he can.

Two families meet for a marriage that neither want, and things take a turn when the respective patriarchs fall in love.

Two families meet for a marriage that neither want, and things take a turn when the respective patriarchs fall in love.

Nápoles. Nicola y sus amigos tienen quince años. Quieren ganar dinero, comprar ropa de diseño y motos nuevas. Juegan con armas y recorren la ciudad para hacerse con el poder en el distrito de Sanità. Se aman como una familia, no temen a la cárcel ni a la muerte, sabiendo que su única posibilidad es arriesgarlo todo, ahora. Ellos experimentan la guerra con la irresponsabilidad de la adolescencia, pero sus actividades criminales pronto les llevarán al sacrificio irreversible del amor y la amistad.

Rómulo y Remo son dos hermanos pastores de 18 años que viven cerca del río Tíber. Convencido de que él es más importante que los deseos de Dios, Remus cree que está destinado a ser rey de la ciudad que encontrará junto a su hermano. Pero su trágico destino ya está escrito. Este increíble viaje llevará a los dos hermanos a crear uno de los más grandes imperios que el mundo haya visto jamás.

In 1968, five girls from Tuscany who dreamt of seeing the world were offered to tour the Far East as an all-girl band, finding themselves in the middle of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, they tell the story of Le Stars' adventure amongst American soldiers, remote jungle bases and soul music.

Renzo, 40, lives alone in an apartment that has turned into a kind of bunker. It's been a long time since he leaves home and the only source of livelihood are pizzas and supplì that come home. Convinced that jihadist terrorism is on the verge of attacking Italy, he decides to take justice on his own by sending a bombshell to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, a nation guilty, in his opinion, of financing terrorists. Not everything will run smoothly as he had expected.

EYES is a fictional short film (13' - genre: soft drama). It deals with a issue deeply connected with everyday life in present times: it denounces the daily frenzy of our lives and a spreading indifference. EYES strongly criticises our society, which is more and more prone to violence, inaction and consumerism. Is it still possible that people could hope in something better? In EYES, 30 actors played with eyes wide shout. This short film is dedicated to the memory of Niccolò Ciatti, and to all the other victims of Indifference.

A 12-year-old boy tries everything to join a music lovers club.

In the middle of nowhere, a group of guys play a game of football. At stake is much more than a simple victory.

Set on the small island of Porto Buio, the traditional live Christmas Nativity scene might not go ahead because the baby who’s always played Jesus has grown up and no new babies have been born on the island in years! With this fundamental tradition on the line, newly elected Mayor Cecco (Claudio Bisio) wants to ask the local Tunisian community to “borrow” one of their children, but there’s conflict between the two communities. Cecco enlists the help of local Islam convert Bilal (Alessandro Gassman) to cross the cultural divide… but both communities are not sure what to make of a baby Jesus that may need his nationality, and even his religion changed!

Turín, 1969. Massimo es un joven de nueve años que disfruta de una infancia feliz junto a su madre, una mujer cariñosa pero psicológicamente inestable. Una mañana, el pequeño es invitado a pasar unos días en casa de unos vecinos, quienes le explican que su madre ha fallecido. Massimo, quien crece sin haber conocido las causas de la muerte de su progenitora y nunca entablar relación con su padre. Treinta años más tarde, Massimo se ha convertido en un reputado escritor y periodista, comienza a sufrir una serie de ataques de pánico. Cuando Massimo se prepare para vender el apartamento familiar, Elisa, una doctora, le ayudará a enfrentarse a las heridas de su pasado. Este drama italiano está basado en la novela de Massimo Gramellini 'Fai bei sogni'.

In the theater of a small village, rehersals are taking place for a show based on the opera I Pagliacci. There is no orchestra, just a piano and the singers. Amongs the few people in the audience there is the mother of the singer, a rich local lady and financer of the project, the sister, and a few other people involved in the show. During a dinner party at this rich lady’s house, a hiposis session takes place, where rancor and pain emerge from the brother and sister towards their mother and their impossibility of overcoming them.

Italy, third millennium. Andrei, a Romanian university student, ends up embroiled in an intrigue linked to the disappearance of a German antiquarian.

Young and in prison for theft, Daphne falls in love with Josh, another inmate. Their love story exists through secret letters and fleeting conversations.

Between 1926 and 1927, the Italian intellectual and Communist political figure Antonio Gramsci spent 44 days imprisoned on the island of Ustica, off the northern coast of Sicily. Together with his fellow prisoners, he founded a school. This unique institution was open to all, welcoming people of all ages and social backgrounds, even the illiterate. Ustica still remembers this revolutionary school. Ustica, remote and neglected, still waits patiently at the harbor, hoping that the boat from the mainland will come.

Norte de Italia, siglo XVII. En un monasterio, una monja acusada de brujería seduce a un joven confesor quien se niega a ceder a la ardiente tentación. Una lucha de deseos, ilusiones y mentiras que se arrastrarán de forma inesperada hasta la actualidad…

A compassionate look at the way the digital revolution has affected the Sicilian movie theater industry.

Ambulance-chasing lawyers takes on the case of a convicted murderer who, just being released after doing 27 years in jail, claims he was innocent.

Ambulance-chasing lawyers takes on the case of a convicted murderer who, just being released after doing 27 years in jail, claims he was innocent.

Ambulance-chasing lawyers takes on the case of a convicted murderer who, just being released after doing 27 years in jail, claims he was innocent.

Inspired by the novel by Aldo Nove, this is the dramatic coming-of-age story of a boy who takes his experiences to the point of seeking death, only to be reborn. His favourite poet chose death, but he finds the strength to survive and tell about his “obscene life”.

A child is in the park playing with his plasticine figures, that he modeled himself. His favorite character is Isaac. Isaac is a little boy just like he is, who dreams, hopes and confides in the world. Isaac is happy because this is the day he will accompany his father on the mountains to help him out. Isaac's father is named Abraham.

Salvo, un despiadado sicario de la mafia siciliana, cambia sus prioridades después de verse involucrado en una sangrienta emboscada.

Se mueve en lo grotesco y lo trágico en una Palermo cutre, surrealista y atemporal, reconstruida en el barrio Paradiso de Brindisi, en Apulia. El encargado de narrar la vieja historia de la familia Ciraulo es Busu, mientras espera su turno en la oficina de correos. El padre de la familia, Nicola Ciraulo es una especie de Homer Simpson siciliano, como ha dicho el propio autor del libro Alajmo. Para mantener a su familia vende el hierro que extrae de barcos abandonados. El resto de miembros de la familia son la madre Loredana, los abuelos Fonzio y Rosa y los hijos Tancredi y Serenella. La tragedia estalla tras un día en la playa. La pequeña Serenella, como si tuviese una corazonada, no quiere volver a casa. En un ajuste de cuentas mafioso, una bala perdida mata a la niña. Tras el luto, llueve el maná del cielo. Los familiares tienen derecho a una indemnización por parte del Estado de 113.000 euros... (FILMAFFINITY)

El drama de una estrella de cine que cuida de su hija, que se encuentra en estado vegetativo, sirve para abordar el caso de Eluana Englaro, una italiana que pasó 17 años en coma antes de que por decisión de su padre se desconectara la máquina que la mantenía con vida.

Se mueve en lo grotesco y lo trágico en una Palermo cutre, surrealista y atemporal, reconstruida en el barrio Paradiso de Brindisi, en Apulia. El encargado de narrar la vieja historia de la familia Ciraulo es Busu, mientras espera su turno en la oficina de correos. El padre de la familia, Nicola Ciraulo es una especie de Homer Simpson siciliano, como ha dicho el propio autor del libro Alajmo. Para mantener a su familia vende el hierro que extrae de barcos abandonados. El resto de miembros de la familia son la madre Loredana, los abuelos Fonzio y Rosa y los hijos Tancredi y Serenella. La tragedia estalla tras un día en la playa. La pequeña Serenella, como si tuviese una corazonada, no quiere volver a casa. En un ajuste de cuentas mafioso, una bala perdida mata a la niña. Tras el luto, llueve el maná del cielo. Los familiares tienen derecho a una indemnización por parte del Estado de 113.000 euros... (FILMAFFINITY)

Se mueve en lo grotesco y lo trágico en una Palermo cutre, surrealista y atemporal, reconstruida en el barrio Paradiso de Brindisi, en Apulia. El encargado de narrar la vieja historia de la familia Ciraulo es Busu, mientras espera su turno en la oficina de correos. El padre de la familia, Nicola Ciraulo es una especie de Homer Simpson siciliano, como ha dicho el propio autor del libro Alajmo. Para mantener a su familia vende el hierro que extrae de barcos abandonados. El resto de miembros de la familia son la madre Loredana, los abuelos Fonzio y Rosa y los hijos Tancredi y Serenella. La tragedia estalla tras un día en la playa. La pequeña Serenella, como si tuviese una corazonada, no quiere volver a casa. En un ajuste de cuentas mafioso, una bala perdida mata a la niña. Tras el luto, llueve el maná del cielo. Los familiares tienen derecho a una indemnización por parte del Estado de 113.000 euros... (FILMAFFINITY)

Nicola is a man who has spent much of his life in a mental institution, though not always as a patient. Nicola's mother suffered from mental illness, and when young Nicola grew old enough to understand some of her stranger behavior as well as the family's other dark secrets, a few of the adults around him preferred to suggest he was disturbed like his mother, and he was encouraged to visit an asylum not far from his home. As an adult, Nicola has spent enough time around people who have a tenuous connection with reality that he has a superficial resemblance to them, and has developed a strange set of imaginary friends to go along with his eccentric real-life companions and the woman he loves from afar, Marinella.

Principios del siglo XX. Benito Mussolini, un joven revolucionario socialista, conoce a Ida Dalser, una mujer tan pasional como él, que lo apoyará en la lucha política, incluso cuando cambia de rumbo y sustituye el socialismo por el fascismo. Ella pone a su disposición todos sus recursos para que pueda fundar su propio periódico: Il Popolo d'Italia. Se casarán y tendrán un hijo, pero Ida descubre que su matrimonio por la Iglesia tiene mucho menos valor que el que Mussolini ha contraído con Rachele Guidi. Cuando el Duce llega al poder, su decisión de excluir de su vida tanto a Ida como al niño es irrevocable.

In the Sicily of the late 1940s, two brother sculptors, tired of selling madonnas to the local churches, finally realize their dream, and set up a Sicilian production company, thanks to the help of a local bishop. They start producing one box-office failure Z-movie after the other, all with terribly bad local non-pros as actors. Covered in debts, they finally have their great chance, when a local nobleman obsessed by magic decides to invest all his wealth in the making of a movie about Cagliostro, just one year after Orson Welles' Black Magic (1949). They hire a famous American actor (Robert Englund) and start shooting "The Return of Cagliostro".

In the Sicily of the late 1940s, two brother sculptors, tired of selling madonnas to the local churches, finally realize their dream, and set up a Sicilian production company, thanks to the help of a local bishop. They start producing one box-office failure Z-movie after the other, all with terribly bad local non-pros as actors. Covered in debts, they finally have their great chance, when a local nobleman obsessed by magic decides to invest all his wealth in the making of a movie about Cagliostro, just one year after Orson Welles' Black Magic (1949). They hire a famous American actor (Robert Englund) and start shooting "The Return of Cagliostro".

In the Sicily of the late 1940s, two brother sculptors, tired of selling madonnas to the local churches, finally realize their dream, and set up a Sicilian production company, thanks to the help of a local bishop. They start producing one box-office failure Z-movie after the other, all with terribly bad local non-pros as actors. Covered in debts, they finally have their great chance, when a local nobleman obsessed by magic decides to invest all his wealth in the making of a movie about Cagliostro, just one year after Orson Welles' Black Magic (1949). They hire a famous American actor (Robert Englund) and start shooting "The Return of Cagliostro".

True story of an attractive Sicilian mob-wife who participates in her husband's drug-dealing business and falls for her husband's lackey.

In relation to some of Pasolini's visits to Palermo for this last film, in 2000 Ciprì and Maresco shot Arruso, which begins with a phrase by Pasolini ("I banished the word hope from my vocabulary") and consists of imaginary interviews with some local characters who are presumed to have had homosexual relationships with the director. The two record the testimonies, sometimes affectionate others less, of those who had the opportunity to meet him and know the trends on the occasion of that trip.

In relation to some of Pasolini's visits to Palermo for this last film, in 2000 Ciprì and Maresco shot Arruso, which begins with a phrase by Pasolini ("I banished the word hope from my vocabulary") and consists of imaginary interviews with some local characters who are presumed to have had homosexual relationships with the director. The two record the testimonies, sometimes affectionate others less, of those who had the opportunity to meet him and know the trends on the occasion of that trip.

A visit to the Rotoli cemetery in Palermo, while film director Carmelo Bene reads a fragment of Antonio Pizzuto's book "Signorina Rosina".

A visit to the Rotoli cemetery in Palermo, while film director Carmelo Bene reads a fragment of Antonio Pizzuto's book "Signorina Rosina".

A visit to the Rotoli cemetery in Palermo, while film director Carmelo Bene reads a fragment of Antonio Pizzuto's book "Signorina Rosina".

Ciprì and Maresco's delicious documentary portrays Sicilian super-agent Enzo Castagna, a man with some 20,000 extras on his books, who has worked with the likes of Loren, Pasolini, Rosi, Coppola and Cimino (indeed, virtually anyone who's ever chosen to film in Palermo). It's typically weird, witty and wonderful, partly due to its subject, a self-styled 'little big man' who consents to be described as 'almighty' and 'the greatest contributor to Italian cinema in the last 35 years'. The local favourite has also done time for bribery, but refuses to comment on Cosa Nostra. The film is as astonishing as its subject. Shot in luscious b/w, it's driven forward by an offscreen interrogator who alternates between ludicrously hyperbolic flattery and forthright questions about corruption and crime. It also serves as a study of the way ethics get abandoned in the unending pursuit of fame, wealth and self-esteem.

Ciprì and Maresco's delicious documentary portrays Sicilian super-agent Enzo Castagna, a man with some 20,000 extras on his books, who has worked with the likes of Loren, Pasolini, Rosi, Coppola and Cimino (indeed, virtually anyone who's ever chosen to film in Palermo). It's typically weird, witty and wonderful, partly due to its subject, a self-styled 'little big man' who consents to be described as 'almighty' and 'the greatest contributor to Italian cinema in the last 35 years'. The local favourite has also done time for bribery, but refuses to comment on Cosa Nostra. The film is as astonishing as its subject. Shot in luscious b/w, it's driven forward by an offscreen interrogator who alternates between ludicrously hyperbolic flattery and forthright questions about corruption and crime. It also serves as a study of the way ethics get abandoned in the unending pursuit of fame, wealth and self-esteem.

Ciprì and Maresco's delicious documentary portrays Sicilian super-agent Enzo Castagna, a man with some 20,000 extras on his books, who has worked with the likes of Loren, Pasolini, Rosi, Coppola and Cimino (indeed, virtually anyone who's ever chosen to film in Palermo). It's typically weird, witty and wonderful, partly due to its subject, a self-styled 'little big man' who consents to be described as 'almighty' and 'the greatest contributor to Italian cinema in the last 35 years'. The local favourite has also done time for bribery, but refuses to comment on Cosa Nostra. The film is as astonishing as its subject. Shot in luscious b/w, it's driven forward by an offscreen interrogator who alternates between ludicrously hyperbolic flattery and forthright questions about corruption and crime. It also serves as a study of the way ethics get abandoned in the unending pursuit of fame, wealth and self-esteem.

En un Palermo degradado, poético y grotesco, suceden tres episodios surrealistas que tienen a un pobre jugador, un anciano homosexual y un improbable Mesías. (FILMAFFINITY)

En un Palermo degradado, poético y grotesco, suceden tres episodios surrealistas que tienen a un pobre jugador, un anciano homosexual y un improbable Mesías. (FILMAFFINITY)

En un Palermo degradado, poético y grotesco, suceden tres episodios surrealistas que tienen a un pobre jugador, un anciano homosexual y un improbable Mesías. (FILMAFFINITY)

Shot in his butcher shop by a rival clan during the Mafia wars of 1988, the Palermo Mobster Tano Guarrasi is mourned by his wife, four unmarried sisters and his daughter. But in truth, his death represents a kind of liberation for the women.

Ciprì and Maresco are fierce critics of post-modern society. They bear witness to the colonization of the imagination attributable in part to the omnipresence of mass communications and the globalization of neo-capitalist values. Their works, scatological in the literal but especially in the metaphorical and etiological sense, denounce social institutions and practices thought to be at the root of injustice, inequality and criminality.

The Italian duo Ciprì & Maresco, known to be cynical deconstructionists, weave a fascinating film around memories of a decadent Sicily. Ruins, memories of ruins - memories are ruins. This thoroughly surrealist piece unfolds like a dream, with no clear direction but the haunting feeling of familiarity and the ready acceptance of otherness as oneness.

Daniele Ciprì short film

The Italian duo Ciprì & Maresco, known to be cynical deconstructionists, weave a fascinating film around memories of a decadent Sicily. Ruins, memories of ruins - memories are ruins. This thoroughly surrealist piece unfolds like a dream, with no clear direction but the haunting feeling of familiarity and the ready acceptance of otherness as oneness.

The best italian film of the 90's, the most extreme and radical work since SALO', a ruthless representation, in a surreal-metaphorical key, of a civilization condemned to worshipping its own blindness. The two sicilian directors use a language free from compromise and from the traditional storyline rules: the movie is photographed in a sharp and very contrasting black & white, with no beautiful pimp music, and lacks a logical story. There are no women (the ones we see are actually men), and the language is strict sicilian dialect. The directing style is characterized by long fixed shots on a post-atomic world, which is really present-day Palermo, inhabited by fat people in socks and underwear who burp and fart while roaming around smelly alleyways and waste dumps.

An anthology of video short films directed by Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco. interviews conducted by the two directors with alienated, crazy and squalid characters of a desolate Sicily.

Short 35mm experimental film featuring Sam Fuller.

Short 35mm experimental film featuring Sam Fuller.