The Moviemov Italian Film Festival returns to Bangkok!

"ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL MOVIEMOV IS RETURNING TO BANGKOK FROM 27TH FEBRUARY TO 1ST MARCH, PAYING HOMAGE TO FERZAN OZPETEK, WHO WILL BE A GUEST FOR THE EVENT. A 4K RESTORATION PREVIEW OF HIS FIRST WORK, "IL BAGNO TURCO – HAMAM," WILL BE HELD IN ROME ON MONDAY, 12TH FEBRUARY, IN COLLABORATION WITH MINERVA PICTURES, ANTICIPATING OZPETEK’S TOUR IN ASIA.

ROME, 30th January 2024 – The Italian Film Festival Moviemov returns to pay homage to Ferzan Ozpetek. After three editions streamed online in the Philippines and Thailand, the event, conceived by Goffredo Bettini and organized by the Playtown Roma Cultural Association, will now take place in person for its XIII edition in Bangkok from 27th February to 1st March 2024.

The itinerant festival, born in 2010 with the support of the Directorate General for Cinema of the Ministry of Culture and in partnership with the Italian Embassy in Bangkok, the Thai-Italian Chamber of Commerce, and the Italian Trade Agency, is preparing for a special event in Rome on Monday, 12th February, at 9.00 pm at the Barberini Cinema. This event is dedicated to the 4K restored film “The Turkish Bath – Hamam,” Ozpetek’s first work produced by Marco Risi and Maurizio Tedesco, 27 years after its release.

The homage to Ferzan Ozpetek will continue in Bangkok with the screening of two more of his iconic films, “The Ignorant Fairies” and “Loose Goons,” in addition to the international premiere of the 4K restored copy of “The Turkish Bath.” “I’m very happy that in this new Moviemov edition, finally in person, Ferzan Ozpetek is returning,” declares Goffredo Bettini. “We decided to dedicate a retrospective to him because he has proven capable of speaking to the world over the years, conquering the audience with his universal stories.

“We are really happy and excited to present, together with Moviemov, the new 4K restoration of this extraordinary film, 'The Turkish Bath – Hamam.' After 27 years since its release, it is a source of pride for us to bring his debut film back to the silver screen, and we are currently defining the best distribution period together with Catpeople, maybe this Autumn,” declares Gianluca Curti, CEO of Minerva Pictures. Moreover, in the coming months, the restoration of “The Turkish Bath – Hamam” will be exclusively streamed on our streaming platform Rarovideo Channel, available on Prime Video and the Film Club.

Ferzan Ozpetek comments: "It is an immense joy to know of the restoration of my directorial debut film and the initiatives for a new distribution in Bangkok. 27 years have passed, and in the meantime, I have directed many other films and signed many artistic operations, not only cinematographic ones. But the memory of that first experience, difficult and uncertain but exhilarating, still excites me. A strong feeling for which I am grateful to Marco Risi and Maurizio Tedesco, who agreed to finance my work. Four and a half weeks of filming, a very small crew, a marvelous effort, the result of an unrepeatable harmony. During the day, when we were out filming in the various locations, the owners of the guesthouse where we slept sublet the room to prostitutes. Coming back there, we always found bizarre things. Once the film was completed, for eight months, it remained - so to speak - locked in the cellar; no one wanted it until Pierre-Henry Deleau arrived in Rome, a delegate of the Cannes Film Festival for the prestigious Quinzaine des Directors section who selected it, the only one among the 60 Italian feature films proposed. And the day after I moved to Cannes, my life changed completely. Sold in many countries, also successfully distributed in the United States." It was the year 1996/97, and the director goes back to that period at the beginning of his career. "I sometimes think back to it with nostalgia mixed with a good dose of pride: with what courage I made a film like that in those years.”