Sworn Virgin bids for glory in Berlin

(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - On the eve of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, hopes were running high Wednesday for the lone Italian film in competition - 'Vergine Giurata' (Sworn Virgin).
    The debut feature by Laura Bispuri and starring Alba Rohrwacher is an Italo-French-Swiss-Albanian co-production that tells the story of an Albanian girl who, according to a local custom, takes on a man's garb to gain freedom and autonomy.
    Bispuri also wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed drama, along with Francesca Manieri.
    Other Italian films to be shown at the festival include 'Cloro' (Chlorine) by Lamberto Sanfelice, which tells the story of a youngster whose dreams of becoming a synchronized swimming star are brutally interrupted.
    It had also been selected for the Sundance film festival in the United States which closed Tuesday.
    'Il Gesto Delle Mani' (Hand Gestures) by Francesco Clerici is a documentary that focuses on bronze sculpting techniques that have not changed since the fifth century BC, when the historic Riace bronzes were created.
    'Vergine Giurata', mostly shot in Italy's mountainous northern Alto Adige region, is an adaptation of the bestselling book by Elvira Dones, which was recently translated into English.
    Albanian sworn virgins (Albanian: burrnesha or virgjinesha) are women who take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to live as men in the patriarchal northern Albanian society.
    To a lesser extent, the practice exists, or has existed, in other parts of the western Balkans, including Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.
    Other Italian films to be presented in Berlin include 'Short Skin' by Duccio Chiarini deals with the problems facing a teenage boy interested in sex while coping with a congenital inability to retract his foreskin. 'Torneranno i prati' (Greenery Will Bloom Again) from director Ermanno Olmi is set on the front lines in the Italian Alps during the First World War where soldiers must confront their mortality.