The 62nd Locarno International Film Festival is to welcome the well-known Italian theater actor and director Pippo Delbono, presenting his entire filmography. Among the latter will be a number of works never before screened and his latest full-length feature, La Paura, co-produced by Forum des Images (Paris), just completed and filmed entirely on a mobile phone.


Pippo Delbono was born in Varazze, not far from the city of Savona on the Italian Riviera, in 1959. In 1987, after some years working in the theater in Denmark, China and Bali, the actor and director returned to Italy, where he made his home debut with a piece written by himself, Il tempo degli assassini, that had already been performed during a long tour of South America. A provocative and probing style became the hallmark of Delbono’s many dramas, in which he often plays the leading part, that have included Il muro, focused on human solitude (1990), La rabbia, a tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini (1995), Barboni, enacting the sufferings of those on the margins of society in a piece which featured performances by actors with mental disabilities (1997), Urlo, an indictment of oppressive society presented at the Avignon Festival in 2004, down to his latest La Menzogna (2008), performed at various European festiva ls. The many awards he has received include the 2009 “Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities”.

«A free-thinking and extraordinarily creative man of the theater» explains Frédéric Maire, Locarno’s artistic director «Pippo Delbono has also established himself in recent years as one of the most exciting filmmakers on the Italian scene. The Locarno Festival is delighted to be able to bring together for the first time the complete range of his work for film and television, which provides viewers with an intense and entirely personal vision of Italy today».

In addition to various works not previously screened, the 62nd Festival will feature all of the full-length features made for the cinema by Pippo Delbono: Guerra (2003), a meditation on the functions of art and theater that was selected for the Venice Film Festival and won the David di Donatello prize for best documentary; Grido (2006), an eccentric autobiography covering the main stages of his career, presented at the first ever Rome International Film Festival and scheduled for theatrical release in France from 17 June; and La Paura (2009), just completed and filmed entirely on a mobile phone. The Locarno public will also be able to see a film of his show Il silenzio, co-produced with TV network ARTE. Last but not least, in Locarno the eclectic Delbono will also be performing his monologue for the theater Racconti di Giugno.

During the forthcoming Festival, alongside the season of his works, Pippo Delbono will also be meeting the Locarno audience in person.

The 62nd edition of the Locarno International Film Festival will take place 5 - 15 August, 2009.