Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights to Jonas Carpignano’s coming of age film “A Ciambra,” which premiered in the Director’s Fortnight competition at the currently underway 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Martin Scorsese executive produced the drama.
The films marks the follow-up to Carpignano’s “Mediterranea,” which Sundance Selects also distributed. Pio Amato, Kudos Seihon, Iolanda Amato and Damiano Amato star in the latest.
“A Ciambra” takes place in small Romani community in Calabria, where Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the regions’ factions – the local Italians, the African immigrants and his fellow Romani. Pio looks up to his older brother Cosimo to learn necessary skills for life on the streets of their hometown. When Cosimo disappears and things start to go wrong, Pio is forced to mature.
In a statement, Scorsese called “A Ciambra” “a compelling and accomplished film.”
“The world is so realized, so intimate, that I felt as if I was living alongside its characters and Carpignano himself,” he added. “What he does with his young lead, drawing from him a mature and complex performance, is truly remarkable. A moving and beautiful picture.”
Carpignano said, “F— yeah! The road to Cannes has been a long and wonderful journey with many people particularly the Amato family. After working together on my first film ‘Mediterranea,’ I’m really happy that Sundance Selects has been so enthusiastic about working together again.”
Arianna Bocco, EVP of Acquisitions & Production negotiated the deal with WME on behalf of the filmmakers. The film is produced by: Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Gwyn Sannia, Rodrigo Teixeira, Marc Schmidheiny, Cristoph Daniel.