Thursday 20 November at 19:30

By invitation only

At the beginning of the 20th century, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show arrived in Rome to sell Italians the myth of the frontier-with blank rifle shots and cowboy spectacles. Against the backdrop of a legendary rodeo contest between American cowboys and Italian butteri , Rosa, the young wife of the local landowner, falls in love with Santino, the buttero who wins the challenge. After the murder of her husband, Rosa and Santino run away together, but justice, as always, is sold to the highest bidder, and a hefty bounty is placed on Santino’s head. With Buffalo Bill hot on their trail, Rosa dreams of America-the real one, not the one in the posters with bison-but her dream must confront reality. Because like in every true western ballad, fate flips a coin. And often, the truth remains buried underground.

Alessio Rigo De Righi and Matteo Zoppis (b. 1986) are two Italian American directors. Their collaboration started with the short documentary Belva Nera and the award-winning documentary Il Solengo. Their first fiction feature film The Tale of King Crab premiered at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at the 2021 Festival de Cannes. Their work focuses on folk tales and legends of the peasant tradition and on the incomplete and imperfect mechanism of oral tradition that ends up giving rise to new stories. Their films have been featured in and awarded in festivals like Cannes, New York Film Festival, IFFR, Karlovy Vary, Göteborg, Viennale, BAFICI, São Paulo, Cinéma du Réel, Doclisboa, RIDM and Torino Film Festival.

Greek Premiere
Director in attendance