by Maria Garcia

Large or small, the vast majority of film festivals are international. A few are regional, but rarely is there one devoted entirely to movies from a single country. That is what makes "Open Roads: New Italian Cinema" so unusual. This one-week festival, in its 16th year, screens at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City June 2-8. A welcome alternative to summer blockbusters, the films also provide a wonderful snapshot of contemporary Italian culture.

Sponsored by several Italian institutions, the broad mission of "Open Roads" is to showcase Italian cinema, but like all film festivals it also represents an effort to garner wider distribution for its 14 feature-length films. Some movies, such as Adriano Valerio's narrative feature Banat, are excellent art-house fare, and represent Italians' concerns with an economy that compels young people to look abroad for employment. Others have more commercial appeal, such as Laura Morante's urbane comedy Assolo (Solo), in which the director stars as a middle-aged woman in the throes of a mid-life epiphany, and Carlo Lavagna's pensive drama Arianna, a modern twist on a young woman's quest for identity.

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Source: http://www.filmjournal.com/