Italian sales company Slingshot Films has taken world sales on timely Berlin Panorama doc “Normal,” a reflection on how female and male identities play out in everyday interactions, through a collage of immersive scenes filmed all over Italy.
Directed by London and Rome-based director Adele Tulli – who has made a splash on the specialized fest circuit most recently with “Rebel Menopause,” about French women’s rights activist Thérèse Clerc – “Normal” is described by Tulli in her directors’ statement as a “ballet of moving images” capturing some of the most iconic moments in people’s life, from birth to adulthood and revealing “how our gender defines us in most of the things we do, affecting our gestures, desires, behaviors, and aspirations.”
By depicting “the spectacle of gender in everyday life” it invites the audience “to question and unravel the very idea of normality,” Tulli said.
Commenting on the pic’s experimental visual approach Tulli said that “Even though the scenes are shot in real locations, they feel stylised and staged: frames are carefully composed, looking for unnatural symmetries, and camera angles are often frontal and static, focusing on repeated and contrived gestures.”
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“Normal,” which is world-premiering in Panorama, is produced by new Rome-based indie shingle FilmAffair founded by documentary specialists Valeria Adilardi, Luca Ricciardi, Laura Romano, Mauro Vicentini.
Their company’s focus is on high-profile docs for theatrical release and projects exploring new frontiers of storytelling. FilmAffair co-produced “Normal” with Italy’s AAMOD (Audiovisual Archive of the Democratic and Labour Movement), in association with Istituto Luce and Intramovies and in collaboration with Rai Cinema and Ginestra Film.
Manuela Buono, head of Trieste-based arthouse sales outfit Slingshot noted that “Normal” fits perfectly with their parameters of “always looking for new, creative, independent and challenging voices to add to our line-up.” She also pointed out in a statement that Berlin in general, and Panorama in particular, is an excellent platform for “intelligent and serious explorations of the social world.”