Movimento Film: non odiare

“It starts with a doctor in Trieste who witnesses a car accident. He rushes to the scene to offer his help, but, upon seeing a neo-nazi symbol on the victim’s chest, decides to step back and let the man die,” says Mario Mazzarotto, Director of Movimento Films.

“Non Odiare is a film about the aftermath of this decision,” he adds. “It’s about ethics, morality, and many of the social issues we are all facing today. This is not a film that aims to ‘teach’ anyone anything: that would be a bad way to make film art. Instead, it should provoke people to think about the multiple contradictions of character and society. To ask themselves difficult questions relating to fears and prejudice. I think it’s crucial to understand the levels of intolerance and racism in society today.”

Mario founded Movimento Film in Rome in 2008, a stone’s throw from the Colosseum. The company produces and distributes documentaries, series, and feature films for television and cinemas. Non Odiare is the latest production he is working on, with the potential to be a success in the Italian box office when it comes out in 2020. But it’s been hard work…

“The audiovisual funding environment is tough. There are only a few banks with the expertise and willingness to support film production in Italy today,” says Mario. “And we’re competing with massive international production companies like Amazon or Netflix with more firepower in terms of financial resources. They can produce a film in 2-3 months where we need 2-3 years. This is why it’s so important to find support from sources like the EU – it allows a smooth production process, and helps with cashflow so that nobody has to suffer. We need to move as fast as possible, so it’s important that there are no unnecessary delays.”

An EU-guaranteed loan through CDP/Intesa San Paolo, backed by the EIF under the Investment Plan for Europe supported the production of Non Odiare, which comes out in spring 2020.

Mario has been in film production for a long time, having started his first film production company back in 1992, but he’s still hungry for new adventures: “I want to continue to look for good ideas and at the same time improve the role of executive producer for the production of interesting and innovative ideas. At the moment, we are working on the development of 2 new films for cinema, we are developing a TV series for Rai fiction, and we have a couple of documentaries in post-production.”

Company: Movimento Films (Italy)

Type of business: Audiovisual

EIF financing: Cultural & Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS), EFSI

Financial intermediary: CDP / Intesa San Paolo

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Italy, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/it