How to contact the dead? For Fidel quite simple: He uses a photo of his deceased wife as a telephone receiver and speaks to her, his two children Anita and Tito are there. That's how they all feel connected to each other. It's not so easy for Fidel's brother, the professor. For six years, the scientist has been searching for giant satellites and telescopes in the Nevada desert in space for the voice of his dead wife.
These are serious, painful themes that the Italian Paola Randi devotes herself to - in her enchanting film "Tito, the Professor and the Aliens" - and tells her playfully for children and adults. It combines the joie de vivre of classical Italian comedy with the lacunae of the American Western and the absurdities of science fiction.
When Fidel dies, Tito and Anita set out from Naples on their way to Nevada for professorship uncle. Above all, Anita is very excited, because she is sure to immerse herself in the glittering world of Las Vegas and to meet Lady Gaga. Instead, the siblings land in the nowhere of Nevada - near Area 51, the US Army's military restricted area, for which the professor works in a laboratory hidden in the rock. But most of the time he's wearing a white suit and headphones on a sofa not far from his caravan.
Game with the movie formats
Full of poetry, Randi stares into the stars with her magnificently staged story, to tell of earthly things, of death, of sorrow, of family and communities of destiny, of loss and cohesion. And she plays with countless cinematic possibilities, uses the classic 35mm aesthetic, when she lets the professor look up into the sky in a satellite dish, changes the format to go very close to her characters, sets songs, whether by Dean Martin or the indie band Eels, terrific one. But like so many other films of its kind, "Tito" will have a hard time finding a large audience.
"Bringing films to the market is costly, and that's a good balance," says Maryanne Redpath. Since 2008 she leads the children and youth section of the Berlinale. Movies like "Tito" work at festivals with their event character of getting them to the cinemas, but it's not that easy. If the characters and stories are known, as in Bibi and Tina or other children's book characters, the "packaging" is already there. With original fabrics, however, there is no brand that turns a film into a self-runner.
photo gallery
12 pictures
Children's and Youth Films: In Search of AliensMeetings at eye level
Jakob Kijas knows that too. Six years ago, he founded the distributor eksystent, also with the aim of bringing cinematic gems to the cinemas. It was the cinematographic quality that convinced Kijas "Tito" - and the way Randi deals with her characters: she meets them at eye level. With seriousness, she talks about Tito, who is fascinated by his uncle's inventions and hopes to speak to his father with her help and then to an overweight boy with the pubescent Anita, who practices flirting with a young GI Alien mask and quad. Even the adults are sensitive to their needs.
Now "Tito" has the advantage that the topic and the scene of action - in all absurdities - is familiar to the German public. And that rental has invested eksystent in synchronization. That's not always the case. "Supa Modo" is such an example. Run last year in the children and youth program of the Berlinale, awarded at many festivals, the Kenyan film about a girl suffering from cancer for a long time has not found a rental. Now, the Saxon Children's and Youth Film Service has decided for the first time to award a film nationwide - because he was so convinced of "Supa Modo": On April 18, the film will be released in Germany, with German subtitles. In this country rather uncommon and also a reason why foreign children's films often have a hard time.
"It is believed in Germany, the children with subtitles to overwhelm - totally wrong," Berlinale section leader Redpath is convinced. In general, children and adolescents are too often underestimated. "The films should be harmless and good, always have a happy ending, you do not want the children too much," she says. Pack life in pink comfort. "Production companies and also lenders are often not brave enough to realize even problematic substances," says Joya Thome.
"Tito, the Professor and the Aliens"
Italy 2019
Original title: "Tito e gli alieni"
Director: Paola Randi
Screenplay: Paola Randi, Massimo Gaudioso, Laura Lamada
Cast: Valerio Mastandrea, Clémence Poésy, Luca Esposito, Chiara Stella Riccio, Miguel Herrera
Rental: Eksystent Distribution
Length: 92 minutes
FSK: from 0 years
Start: March 28, 2019
About a year ago, her debut "Queen of Niendorf" was released, a film about a children's summer in the province of Brandenburg. He was successfully shown at numerous festivals, including sold to France. "In the meantime, the number of viewers stands at 30,000, which is enormous in a film financed primarily by crowdfunding," says the director. For comparison: "Jim Knopf & Lukas, the locomotive driver" nationwide reached more than 1.8 million viewers.
In the video: The trailer for "Tito, the Professor and the Aliens"
Eksystent
After all: A large film studio has become aware of Thome by the "Queen of Niendorf". Now she is working on the real-life adaptation of a well-known children's book character. Although she has no influence on the screenplay, she can contribute her staging. So the arthouse sometimes comes in small doses to the mainstream audience.