Italian filmmakers draw from real life in 2018

(ANSA) - Rome, January 3 - The new year brings a crop of new films from big names in Italian cinema, including Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, Marco Bellocchio and Gabriele Muccino, who returned to make a film in Italy after several years based in the United States. Several of the films take their cues from real-life tales of true crime or characters who seem drawn from the outlines of prominent figures in Italian public life.
    One such example is Sorrentino's highly anticipated "Loro", a surreal portrait played by Toni Servillo of a perennial politician and businessman not unlike Silvio Berlusconi.
    Meanwhile, in another shade reminiscent of the famous Italian politician, Daniele Lucchetti's "Io Sono Tempesta", starring Elio Germano, Eleonora Danco and Marco Giallini, offers a comedic portrayal of a financial magnate convicted of fraud who spends a year doing community service.
    The always compelling theme of the mafia comes in the form of Marco Bellocchio's "Il Traditore", a film based on the complex real-life figure of Tommaso Buscetta, a Mafia boss-turned-informant whose entire family was executed by the Corleonesi family, his mafia rivals.
    Another story taken from the front pages is Daniele Vicari's "Sulla Mia Pelle", about land surveyor Stefano Cucchi, who died on October 22, 2009 while being held in custody in Rome's Regina Coeli jail, through the perspective of the judicial process in which five Carabinieri police were put on trial.
    In another real-life story, director Matteo Garrone brings "Dogman", a sort of urban Western inspired by Pietro De Negri, a dog groomer in Rome's Magliana neighbourhood who, 29 years ago, committed an atrociously violent crime, torturing and killing small-time criminal Giancarlo Ricci after having locked him up in a small cage.
    Gabriele Muccino's return to Italy comes with the film "A Casa Tutti Bene", featuring a big-name cast including Stefano Accorsi, Carolina Crescentini, Tea Falco, Piergiorgio Favino, Stefania Sandrelli, Claudia Gerini, Massimo Ghini and Sabrina Impacciatore.
    It tells the story of a large family celebrating their grandparents' golden wedding anniversary on the island where the grandparents moved to, and what happens when rough sea delays the family members' departure.