Toronto-based sales agent Syndicado Film Sales has acquired world rights to “Hide and Seek” (Nascondino), the debut feature from director Victoria Fiore, which will screen in the main DOX:AWARD competition at the Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX).
The Naples-set documentary follows Entoni, a rambunctious 10-year-old, as he navigates childhood in a country where the justice system – in response to rising levels of youth criminality – allows courts to remove high-risk children from families involved in organized crime. Watching over him is his grandmother Dora, a former criminal who fears he is falling into the pattern she started and which Entoni’s imprisoned father has continued.
Produced over the course of four years, “Hide and Seek” tackles the brutality and chaos of these lives through a cinematic lens that blurs the line between truth and fiction, seamlessly blending true events, recollections and recreations.
Fiore described the film as a response to an explosion in youth crime in her hometown, an alarming trend that she said was exacerbated by the media attention surrounding Roberto Saviano’s best-selling exposé “Gomorrah” and the Sky Italia TV series and film it inspired.
“As a ‘voice of Naples,’ inner-city kids looked up to these role models that sensationalized and trivialized crime, seeing themselves reflected in, and later emulating, the dangerous on-screen stereotypes,” said the director. “This situation, combined with an absolute cut-off of funding for social services directed at at-risk youth, proved to be critical for the city. I wanted, I needed, to challenge this.”
Fiore was raised in a neighborhood not unlike Entoni’s Spanish Quarters, where the residents face many of the same issues highlighted in the film. Her personal experience – as a sister, cousin and daughter to Naples natives – allowed her to tap into Entoni and Dora’s lives in what she described as “an unparalleled way, speaking their language to create a work of nuance.”
“Our aim with this film was to collaborate with the locals, write their story with their own language and avoid tired cliches – seen time and time again, from ‘Gomorrah’ to ‘Selfie’ to ‘Piranhas,’” she added. “With creative input from our characters and influential social workers in the area, we feel we’ve created a nuanced portrait of those who have rarely been given the opportunity to speak their truth.”
“Hide and Seek” was produced by Aleksandra Bilic for My Accomplice and Jennifer Corcoran for Freya Films with support from the British Film Institute and the Campania Film Commission.
“It has been an immense privilege to spend the last five years telling the story of Entoni and his family,” said Corcoran. “We are delighted to work with the dedicated team at Syndicado to take ‘Nascondino’ (Hide and Seek) on the next exciting stage of its journey.”
Syndicado’s lineup at CPH:DOX also includes “The Pawnshop,” director Łukasz Kowalski’s black docu-comedy about the largest pawn shop in Poland, whose owners get a bright idea to try to save it as bankruptcy looms.
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