Icarus Films will be teaming up with France’s premiere film production and distribution company, Distrib Films, during back-to-back weeks for the domestic DVD debuts of both Italian filmmaker Gianni Di Gregorio’s Citizens of the World (Jan. 26), and from France, director Anne Fontaine’s police thriller, Night Shift (Feb. 02).
Writer/director (and actor) Gianni Di Gregorio’s Citizens of the World opened at the Torino Film Festival in November of 2019 and made its way into Italian cinemas in February … and then came the Covid-19 panic, and, well, you know the rest.
There is no point waiting for an domestic arthouse run, so Icarus Films and Distrib Films will be bringing Di Gregorio’s award-winning bittersweet comedy to the domestic home entertainment marketplace on Feb. 02.
Rome, it is here that we are introduced to three “retirees,” who share little in common other than that they are friends and reside in same area. Attilio (Ennio Fantastichini — Open Doors, La Stoffa dei Sogni, Loose Cannons, etc.) is a retired knick-knack dealer, ranging from junk to art, “Il Professore” (played by writer/director Gianni Di Gregorio — Mid-August Lunch, The Salt of Life) has the brains, the books and a very lonely life to show for an empty career, and finally there is, retired laborer and general lay-about, but open-hearted; light-hearted Giorgetto (Giorgio Colangeli — Departures, Salty Air, The Woman of My Life).
Like we said, the trio have little in common. They meet, they eat, they drink, they talk about all sorts of things … and they share a dream of getting out of Rome, moving to a quiet place in the country, or for that matter, completely out of Italy … all with an eye towards an easier, more-enjoyable and less-expensive life. It is the getting there that makes Di Gregorio’s Citizens of the World so enjoyable … a tribute to friendship and the beauty of Rome.
Citizens of the World arrives on DVD on Jan. 26 and is presented in Italian with English subtitles.
The following street-date Tuesday, Feb. 02, Icarus Films will also be teaming up with Distrib Films for the DVD debut of director Anne Fontaine’s film adaptation of the Hugo Boris’ 2016 novel, “Police,” which was titled for the screen as Night Shift.
This slick thriller had the misfortune of opening at the Berlin International Film Festival in late February of this year and then several grand theatrical premieres throughout France in early March. A major French theatrical release was planned for April, but that didn’t happen.
That was it. Sure, the producers tried to re-start Fontaine’s film with some late-summer film festival revivals, but getting a theatrical run in the United States proved to be fruitless … Icarus Films and the home entertainment marketplace is the next best solution.
One day in the life of three police officers in a Paris police station is at the core of the film. Each of the protagonists sees the day unfold from their own POV, with the subject at hand — beyond their own personal issues (which are plenty) — is the unwanted, unrewarding and distasteful duty of dealing with illegal migration. Human debris that has found their way from North Africa, the Middle East and more to the City of Lights. In ever-increasing numbers the problem grows.
Today’s assignment for the burned-out cops, Virginie (played by three-time César Awards nominee Virginie Efira — An Impossible Love, Sink or Swim, Victoria), her partner and lover, Aristide (Omar Sy — Chocolat, The Intouchables) and the heavy-drinking Erik (Grégory Gadebois — An Officer and a Spy, One of a Kind, Angel and Tony), all of whom work in the same Paris precinct, is to wrangle Asomidin Tohirov (Payman Maadi — Bomb: A Love Story, A Separation), a former Soviet Union refuge (Tajikistan), take him to the airport and send him packing … back to certain death.
Do you do your job? Do you look the other way, knowing Tohirov’s fate. And what of tomorrow after this assignment plays out? Can each of them carry on, or is there “a bridge too far” (so to speak).
Night Shift is presented in French with English subtitles.
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