Valentina Pedicini's 'Dove cadono le ombre' at Venice Film Festival

At the 74th Venice International Film Festival, Italian director Valentina Pedicini presents her feature debut 'Dove cadono le ombre' (Where Shadows Fall) in the Giornate degli Autori section. The film follows Anna and Hans, two adults who have lived in a hospice since childhood, when it was an orphanage. Their monotonous existence is disrupted by the arrival of an elderly woman named Gertrud, who knows their traumatic past. The story is inspired by the real-life eugenics project of Pro Juventute, an association similar to the Red Cross, which between 1926 and 1986 removed 2,000 children from Jenisch families and subjected them to violent medical experiments, including sterilization. The film draws from the experience of Mariella Mehr, a survivor who became a poet and has fought against Pro Juventute since 1972. Federica Rollini plays Anna. Pedicini previously won the Venice Critics' Week with her short film 'Era Ieri' in 2016.