Coachella Valley Premiere – One Time Screening

Shun Li, a young Chinese immigrant, leaves her job in a textile factory near Rome for a small town along the Venetian lagoon.  She’s driven by one burning desire – to somehow get her papers and bring her young son from China to join her.  The tavern where she works has always been the traditional meeting place of the local fishermen, and for years the handsome old Slav fisherman “The Poet” Bepi, an immigrant who came to the Veneto when he was just a youth, has been among them.

A tender, delicate bond grows between Shun Li and Bepi.  For both of them, it is a poetic universe that shatters their solitudes, a silent dialogue between their two cultures, so different, yet not at all distant.  It is also an odyssey into the deep heart of a lagoon, which can be both the mother and cradle of identities, forever in movement.

Writer/Director:  Andrea Segre
Runtime:  100 min.
Genre : Drama
Distributor:  Film Movement
Country:  Italy | France
Language:  Italian | Mandarin
Rating:  N/R
Starring:  Tao Zhao, Rade Serbedzija and Marco Paolini

FESTIVALS:  Venice Film Festival, Biografilm Festival, Italy; London Film Festival, UK; Italian Film Festival, Stockholm International Film Festival, Sweden; Edmonton International Film Festival, Canada; Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece; Buenos Aires Festival of Italian Cinema, Argentina; Santa Fe International Film Festival, Scottsdale International Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, San Diego International Film Festival, USA

AWARDS:  Italy – Lecce Festival of European Cinema, Venice Film Festival, Andrea Segre, David di Donatello Awards, Tao Zhao; London Film Festival, Satyajit Ray Award, Andrea Segre; Reykjavik International Film Festival, Andrea Segre; Tetouan International Mediterranean Film Festival, Morocco, Andrea Segre, Rade Serbedzija

“Rapturous…Exquisite…Delicate…Atmospheric…The universal
power of poetry.” -Guy Lodge, Variety

“What a debut!…An aesthetic gem…First-class cast, brilliant
script, and you have a great film!” -Sight and Sound

“The film gives insights into an almost totally unheard of community in Italy, and hopefully will lead to some discourse among the still generally close-minded and conservative Italian population.”  -The London Film Review

Official Website w/trailer (in Italian & Mandarin) & Press Kit:  http://www.iosonoli.com/en

Trailer w/subtitles:  http://www.thelondonfilmreview.com/film-review/review-io-sono-li-shun-li-and-the-poet/