Paolo Strippoli's L'Estranea, Italy's Oscar Entry, Premieres in Venice Competition

Set in Bari in 1999, Paolo Strippoli's latest film L'Estranea opens at a lavish poolside party hosted by the Colonna family, gathered to celebrate the achievements of patriarch Walter (Adriano Giannini) and his prodigy children, Tobia and Alice. A serious accident upends Alice's life and sets the narrative mechanism in motion. To preserve her daughter's acting career, mother Anna (Jasmine Trinca) strikes a Faustian pact with a mysterious woman (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), triggering a chain of tragedies that befall the family over the following years. The film is structured in four parts, each devoted to a different family member. L'Estranea screened in Competition at the Mostra del Cinema di Venezia and has already been selected as Italy's representative for the upcoming Academy Awards. The review is by Luca Ragazzo and Anita Romanello, published by Doppiozero.