Io sono Li

Italy, France

Synopsis

Shun Li works in a textile factory on the outskirts of Rome in order to get her papers and enable her eight-year-old son to come to Italy. She is suddenly transferred to Chioggia, a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon, to work as a bartender in a pub. Bepi, a Slavic fisherman, nicknamed “the poet” by his friends, has been a regular at that little pub for years. Their encounter is a poetic escape from solitude, a silent dialogue between cultures that are different, yet no more distant. It is an odyssey into the deep heart of a lagoon, which can be both the mother and cradle of identities, which never keeps still. But the friendship between Shun Li and Bepi upsets both the Chinese and local communities, who interfere with this new voyage, which they are perhaps simply too afraid of.

Director's Statement

My experiences in directing documentary cinema have enabled me to appreciate not only the story of what is real, but also in what is real, helping me to understand how it is possible to discover the intimate and profoundly human dimension of reality, also of the pressing and current themes in today’s society. In IO SONO LI I wanted to respect the methods and styles of documentary cinema, by also working with unprofessional actors and always choosing locations in the real world. At the same time, the precision and subtleness of the language of oriental cinema, some important examples of international independent cinema and the essential collaboration with director of photography Luca Bigazzi have been important traces in order to be able to narrate the atmospheres and places I chose for this film.
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Andrea Segre

Written by: Marco Pettenello, Andrea Segre

Produced by: Francesco Bonsembiante, Frederique Feder

Cinematography: Luca Bigazzi

Editing: Sara Zavarise

Production Design: Leonardo Scarpa

Original Score: François Couturier

Cast: Giuseppe Battiston (Devis), Zhao Tao (Shun Li), Rade Sherbedgia (Bepi), Marco Paolini (Coppe), Roberto Citran (lawyer)

Nominations and Awards

  • European Composer 2012
  • Feature Film Selection 2012