Winner of The Ralph Richardson Award for Best Actor and The Suso Cecchi d'Amico Award for Best Dramaturgy
For the portrayal of three guys with great empathy and an eye for character growth that they become surprisingly likable The Ralph Richardson Award for Best Actor goes jointly to Jacopo Costantini, Matteo Gatta and Lodo Guenzi as the male ensemble of EST. When we see wealthy tourists from the West travelling the East, we usually are told the same story. They start out seeking fun and adventure but are astonished by the poverty and misery they discover throughout their journey. These stories normally end with the heroes helping the oppressed and poor and then emerge as their saviours to find personal and narrative redemption. Antonio Pisu’s EST ultimately subverts this cliché and takes the difficult route of questioning its own and the protagonists’ initial premises. For a deeply personal and highly entertaining journey and for a rarely seen Italian perspective on the last days of Ceaușescu's Romania we give The Suso Cecchi d'Amico Award for Best Dramaturgy to Antonio Pisu for the film EST.
EST
1989. A few weeks before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Pago, Rice and Bibi, twenty-four (twenty-five) years old, leave the calm city of Cesena looking for adventure: a ten-days-long holiday in Eastern Europe, in those places where the Soviet regime is still alive. As they get to Budapest, they meet
Emil, a Romanian fleeing from the dictatorship in his country. The man is worried for his family that still lives in Romania, so he asks the three Italians for help. It’s an easy task: take a suitcase to his wife and daughter. Out of pity and looking for a thrill, the three friends head to Bucharest,
in the heart of Ceausescu’s dictatorship. Without knowing what is waiting for them, in a journey beyond their imagination, Pago, Rice and Bibi will find themselves in a country under the dictatorial regime, involved in surreal situations and surrounded by unlikely characters that will seriously put their lives at risk. Among many plot twists, the three protagonists will
understand the true worth of the things that every day we take for
granted. They will find themselves, strengthen their friendship and join forces to accomplish the most important mission in their lives.
Credits
Antonio Pisu
Director
Antonio Pisu
Writer
Maurizio Paganelli
Producer
Paolo Rossi Pisu
Producer
Andrea Receputi
Producer
Daniel Burlac
Producer
Lodo Guenzi
Key Cast
"Rice"
Matteo Gatta
Key Cast
"Pago"
Jacopo Costantini
Key Cast
"Bibi"
Paolo Rossi Pisu
Key Cast
Ana Ciontea
Key Cast
Ioana Flora
Key Cast
Eva Isisi Popovici
Key Cast