Valzer

Salvatore Maira’s Valzer is an innovative, topical and ultra-contemporary satirical drama about multifaceted events taking place within a hotel during one day.

Different stories all link back to the emotional experience of a maid who is confronted by an ex-convict she has been writing to for years, posing as his daughter. As this drama is played out, there are shenanigans going on in the conference suite, where (drawing on real life events in Italian football) a group of football team supporters are preparing to rig the results of the championship. Meanwhile, television and technology experts discuss how they can brainwash and manipulate viewers using football coverage.

This wickedly arresting mixture of dramatic action, barbed political comment and comic irony is made more fascinating by the director’s ambitious decision to shoot the film in a continuous take, using cameras that literally follow the characters in and out of rooms and from door to door (a modern equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope), accompanied by the music of a waltz being played by a small band in the hotel.

Adrian Wootton, London Film Festival Programme

Producer Mr. Gianmario Feletti will attend the screening of Valser