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PRESS RELEASE (16/08/2013)
Sunday, August 18, a Loano, will close the festival dedicated to animated films of Michel Ocelot, “Cardboard Stories, promoted by the’Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the City of Loano and organized by the I.So THeatre with the artistic direction of Paul Borio.
At 9:30 pm the film “Azur and Asmar” film shown in the Directors“ Fortnight section of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and in the children's section ”Alice in the City" of the Rome Film Festival the same year.
After Kiriku and the Karabà witch, Princes and Princesses, and Kirikù and the Wild Beasts, Michel Ocelot master of European animation, returns once again to enchant with the film Azur and Asmar: the blond and noble Azur and the black Asmar, son of the wet nurse, who raises the two children as brothers and to whom she tells every night the legend of the Jinns' fairy, locked in a secret prison where she awaits salvation. One day, however, the father sends Azur away to study far away and drives the wet nurse and little Asmar from the house. Only as an adult will Azur be able to travel to the Far East to find his former friends, and thanks in part to the memory preserved in his memory of an unknown language, Arabic, (which the director as a stylistic choice has neither dubbed nor subtitled in the film), he will find Asmar, who is also in search of the Jinns' fairy. Together they will succeed in freeing her, each protecting the life of the other, facing risks, ambushes, and heroic choices.
The narrative of the film has the classic structure of a fairy tale, which facilitates the flow of the story. Azur and Asmar depict the two opposing sides of a coexistence, the meeting of two civilizations that accept each other and coexist in mutual respect. The two friends will reach their destination by dissolving questions of meaning about their destiny only after a strenuous journey full of difficulties. Overcoming fears and taboos related to different cultures, they will succeed in translating the acceptance of diversity and integration between peoples into reality.
Michel Ocelot is a writer, television author, illustrator and director of animated films. After studying art in France and the United States, he devoted his career to film. He has directed, scripted and produced the drawings for several animated series and short films. His works are characterized by the use of multiple varieties of animation techniques and are inspired by the world of fairy tales.
The evening is at free admission.{:}
