Films by Francesco Morosini

2019, 52 min
by Alessandro Soetje

Nine thousand years ago man chose to make his first home here. Matera. Perhaps the mother of all cities. Country of rocks, caves and human traces. Axis between East and West. The European Capital of Culture has experienced all that makes Europe different, from art to epoch making changes.

Germany, Italy 2018, 72 min
by Alessandro Soetje

The caustic, bohemian Daniele Kihlgren is the rebellious third child of a wealthy family of cement industry magnates.In the late 90s, he rides his motorbike to Santo Stefano di Sessanio, a medieval village perched on top of the rugged mountains of Abruzzi. It is love at first sight.He realizes that in a place like that he can fulfil an old dream of his –- perfectly restoring a run-down medieval town, and turning it into a hotel. The bottom line is to make a profit from the conservation of the landscape rather than from its destruction, as is so often the case in Italy.The idea is good and it works. Tourists start flocking to Santo Stefano. Emboldened by his success, Kihlgren buys houses in other old villages, and develops a similar plan for the Sassi of Matera. However, he has more an artistic than an entrepreneurial temperament. A careless financial management, combined with an almost obsessive perfectionism, soon causes trouble.In the unique, splendid scenery of Italy’s hidden treasures, director and d.o.p. Alessandro Soetje tells the story of a man who, like his own country, has a big heart but perhaps cannot love himself.

2017, 54 min
by Alessandro Melazzini

The life of Ilona Staller, commonly known as Cicciolina, is probably unique with regard to her art as well as her person. Emigrating from communist Hungary, she followed the call of the 'dolce vita' to Italy and found it a fertile environment for a life dedicated to scandal. When she started posing as a scantily dressed nymph in naughty photographs her career picked up speed and steadily propelled her into the realms of radio, TV, erotic films and pornography. As the first porn star in the history of democracy, Ilona Staller managed to be elected Member of Parliament and her unexpected victory guaranteed her worldwide attention. Her turbulent relationship with Jeff Koons, whose wife and muse she became, finally secured her iconic status in contemporary pop culture.Based on profoundly researched archive material and directed both with passion and a twinkle of irony, La Cicciolina. Godmother of Scandal captures the phenomenon Ilona Staller in its multiple facets and places it in the wider context of Italy's political situation at the time.

Germany, Italy 2014, 72 min
by Alessandro Melazzini

A documentary film that uses high production values to showcase an extraordinary place in the heart of Europe: The Stelvio Pass. Here, at 3,000 meters above sea-level in the middle of the Italian Alps, one finds an imposing natural treasure where the present meets the past and the visitor discovers a breath-taking landscape and mountain sports experience. But people once battled here not just for sporting reasons: 100 years ago the Stelvio Pass was the highest and coldest battlefield of WWI. Objects from that cruel war are still found in the snow by people like Mario, who collects war remains in his spare time. Through Mario’s story and other characters this documentary film enables us to discover the unexpected power and magic of a fascinating alpine microcosm.

Germany 2013, 100 min
by Angelo Bozzolini

The Italian character: a film within music and about music.The Italian character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous rostrum in Rome. Today, this post belongs to Sir Antonio Pappano, an Anglo-American with Beneventian roots, who rediscovered an essential part of his Italian origins conducting the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.In the documentary, a production of Alpenway Media Production GmbH directed by Angelo Bozzolini, the story vividly unfolds itself: It portrays the planning and performance of a great project; it shows how the sound ripens from the first rehearsal to the final applause of a sold-out music hall, what happens to the musicians before they enter the stage, and how they release the tension at the end of a concert.With the personal histories of the members and the conductor of the orchestra, The Italian character allows its audience to gain an insight into a fascinating world that is usually concealed from it. Simultaneously, it tells the story of a national institution, of a historically singular development, of an approach to life that is characteristic for a country which is loved by many, but sometimes misunderstood and even underrated in its unknown variety.How do you arrive at making classical music? Which efforts does this job require every day? What special relationship binds each artist to his instrument? What do they experience on stage? How do you explain the transformation of extreme suspense during the concert into exuberant joy afterwards? – The documentary will answer these questions with a grand, stirring, polyphonic narrative.Beside the main story line, the film calls forth the presence of some of the best soloists and orchestra conductors in the world presenting material collected during their collaboration with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, and consequently with the Italian character.In these moments the “inner” life description of the orchestra will be completed by contribution of friends from “outside”, by their perspectives, their thoughts about the italian character and about their relation with this extraordinary ensemble of passionate musicians.