International correspondent
Venice Film Festival director shares his views on immigration and terrorism
This year’s Venice Film Festival will be the most starry place on Earth for 10 days, with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” Cate Blanchett in Alfonso Cuarón’s TV series “Disclaimer” and Daniel Craig in Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” all lighting up the Lido. But Alberto Barbera, the festival’s artistic director, promises that Venice still has guts beneath the glamour.
Barbera’s term at Venice has been extended until 2026 by the Biennale’s new president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, a right-wing journalist and author appointed by Italy’s ruling coalition. But Barbera makes clear that he has been given a free hand at a time when top festivals are becoming “important instruments” in discussions about the world’s most intractable problems. The 81st edition features films that tackle two major geopolitical crises. “We have never shied away from tackling thorny issues that can cause controversy,” Barbera says. “This year we have documentaries on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict” — “Russians at War” by the exiled Russian director Anastasia Trofimova and “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” by the Ukrainian filmmaker Olha Zhurba. “And there are Israeli and Palestinian films that reflect on the contradictions of this conflict.”
Barbera spoke to Variety about the politics of Venice 2024, the challenges of Italian political history in a festival selection about Benito Mussolini, and the resurgence of eroticism in this year's lineup — a very different kind of raw cinematic art.
