PADRE is a Film that Transcends Death

PADRE is a film that transcends Death, because it narrates the personal process of understanding, and therefore, accepting it. Directed by the Italian filmmaker Giada Colagrande, who presented her first feature film Aprimi il Cuore (Open My Heart) at the Venice Film Festival, and is the main actor as the bereaved daughter, alongside Willem Dafoe, who has just won Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, as her main friend; Franco Battiato, a multidisciplinary artist and songwriter who was very popular in the 80s, as her deceased father; and Marina Abramovic, the performance artist, as her absent mother.

The film was envisioned after a conversation Colagrande had with Gaia Furrer, who became the producer, about a series of repetitive dreams she had after her father died in which Battiato also appeared. A journey into the unknown, Colagrande claims that the death of a loved one is an opportunity for awakening, for spiritual enlightenment, that it is unique and a great pity if not taken advantage of. An intimate film that juggles dimensions and timings of existence, the viewer arrives as the privileged witness of a very private process.