ENG A project funded with the support of “8 per mille” of the Waldensian Church of Italy. HERSTORIES. The Stories, feminine plural. Tales of women from the past, the present and the future. The project, planned originally during the spring of 2020, has been suspended and postponed because of the restrictions following the Covid-19 emergency. We will be updating you by newsletter and in our social media pages confident of your support and participation.

The brilliant director Andrey Tarkovsky, whose works are considered masterpieces of world cinema, left us with eight films and an ever growing interest in and desire to understand his work. The documentary recounts Tarkovsky’s life and work, letting the director tell the story himself, as he shares with us his memories, his view of art and his reflections on the destiny of the artist and the meaning of human existence. Thanks to some extremely rare audio recordings, viewers are able to immerse themselves in the mysterious world of his cinematic imagery, allowing them to comprehend and reassess the work and inner life of the great director.

We are delighted to announce the Short and Medium-length International Competition for the ON THE ROAD FILM FESTIVAL, 7th Edition. A truly indipendent festival without any public funding. Both feature films and shorts/medium length films in competition will be screened at Detour Arthouse Cinema within a period of two consecutive weekends, from 14 to 16 and from 21 to 23, February 2020. The Award Ceremony will be held on the night of February the 23rd. Based at the legendary DETOUR Arthouse Cinema, in the heart of Rome since 1997, ON THE ROAD FILM FESTIVAL is devoted to contemporary independent cinema – fiction, documentary and experimental – presenting travelogues, urban and waste-land wanderings, real or imaginary topographies, unexpected detours, psycho-geographical drifts, migration and nomadism.

The film is a the light-hearted and ironic report of the the Nirvana concert that was held in Marino in the Province of Rome on February 22, 1994, exactly 16 years ago. But it is also a backwards journey through the ‘90s, conducted by the two directors, spectators of that era and that memorable event.

Iwaishima, a heart-shaped piece of confetti in the Seto Sea, is the scene of an anti-nuclear struggle and home to an environmental and societal think-tank. The geographer Philippe Pelletier comes for the ‘Dance of Gods’: a quadrennial, traditional festival celebrating man’s bond with his land and sea. The question is: how do you remain free and independent…and survive?

In August 2014 the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival was shut down. The Government couldn’t tolerate the screening of some ‘sensitive’ works, particularly a historical documentary called “Spark”. ‘The Observer’ is the portrait of the extraordinary and undetected work of this Chinese dissident artist, Hu Jie. Despite making huge contributions to historical research by uncovering essential testimonies from China’s past, his body of work hasn’t been recognized and he has been long blacklisted. This film is animated by the urgency of giving him his silenced voice back.

From the Australian outback to Music City USA, a child guitar prodigy dedicates his life to become the world’s greatest acoustic guitarist, even as revelations of dark family secrets send him into a battle with addiction that threatens to destroy his career, his family and his life.

Romance is a business. Family, friends, followers. All available for hire. A man is hired to impersonate the missing father of a twelve year old girl. Shot in Japan, with Japanese actors, in Japanese language, Oscar-nominated auteur Werner Herzog brings to screen a unique angle to the recurring theme of individuals chasing impossible dreams. Werner Herzog returns to film with an unusual, experimental documentary, shot entirely in Japan, out of competition at the last Cannes Film Festival.The Award Ceremony will be held on the night of February the 23rd. Based at the legendary DETOUR Arthouse Cinema, in the heart of Rome since 1997, ON THE ROAD FILM FESTIVAL is devoted to contemporary independent cinema – fiction, documentary and experimental – presenting travelogues, urban and waste-land wanderings, real or imaginary topographies, unexpected detours, psycho-geographical drifts, migration and nomadism.

Craving connection with others, Nancy creates elaborate identities and hoaxes under pseudonyms on the internet. When she meets a couple whose daughter went missing 30 years ago, fact and fiction begin to blur in Nancy's mind, and she becomes increasingly convinced these strangers are her real parents. As their bond deepens, reasonable doubts give way to willful belief - and the power of emotion threatens to overcome all rationality.

The brilliant director Andrey Tarkovsky, whose works are considered masterpieces of world cinema, left us with eight films and an ever growing interest in and desire to understand his work. The documentary recounts Tarkovsky’s life and work, letting the director tell the story himself, as he shares with us his memories, his view of art and his reflections on the destiny of the artist and the meaning of human existence. Thanks to some extremely rare audio recordings, viewers are able to immerse themselves in the mysterious world of his cinematic imagery, allowing them to comprehend and reassess the work and inner life of the great director.

Every January in a small town in North Macedonia, the high priest throws a cross into the local waters, while dozens of men charge for it. The one who finds the cross is believed to gain overall good fortune and prosperity. An unemployed single young woman Petrunija jumps into the water and catches the cross. In this conservative setting, her competitors feel they have every right to be furious: a woman dared to compete and achieve what they failed to succeed in. Petrunija insists that she is the winner and refuses to return the cross. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.

The brilliant director Andrey Tarkovsky, whose works are considered masterpieces of world cinema, left us with eight films and an ever growing interest in and desire to understand his work. The documentary recounts Tarkovsky’s life and work, letting the director tell the story himself, as he shares with us his memories, his view of art and his reflections on the destiny of the artist and the meaning of human existence. Thanks to some extremely rare audio recordings, viewers are able to immerse themselves in the mysterious world of his cinematic imagery, allowing them to comprehend and reassess the work and inner life of the great director.

This vivid portrait explores M.C. Escher’s life and imaginative world through his own words and visions. Escher’s artistic universe is explored as if we’re seeing it through his own eyes – he ‘narrates’ the film (voiced by Stephen Fry) via excerpts from his many diaries, letters and notes – and across a cornucopia of his works, many of which have never been shown before. While Escher recounts his life and his constant search to turn his thoughts and musings into visual form and to create the immaculate woodcut prints he could see in his mind’s eye, his works float on the screen, animation enhancing their innate movement. His life’s journey also takes us to the places, such as Ravello and Rome, or the Alhambra in Granada, which particularly inspired him. We witness his dogged determination to master drawing technique – he considered that any schoolboy with a little aptitude would be better at drawing than himself – and his work’s evolution as mathematical concerns take precedence, leading him to ponder whether what he is creating is even art.

Every January in a small town in North Macedonia, the high priest throws a cross into the local waters, while dozens of men charge for it. The one who finds the cross is believed to gain overall good fortune and prosperity. An unemployed single young woman Petrunija jumps into the water and catches the cross. In this conservative setting, her competitors feel they have every right to be furious: a woman dared to compete and achieve what they failed to succeed in. Petrunija insists that she is the winner and refuses to return the cross. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.

Every January in a small town in North Macedonia, the high priest throws a cross into the local waters, while dozens of men charge for it. The one who finds the cross is believed to gain overall good fortune and prosperity. An unemployed single young woman Petrunija jumps into the water and catches the cross. In this conservative setting, her competitors feel they have every right to be furious: a woman dared to compete and achieve what they failed to succeed in. Petrunija insists that she is the winner and refuses to return the cross. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.