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Il cassetto segreto

The Secret Drawer
Forum 2024
© Fondo Giuseppe Quatriglio
Costanza has a famous father. Giuseppe Quatriglio was a Sicilian journalist, author and globetrotter. Smart, hungry for life, good-looking. He filled a house with books, texts and mementos. It was in this rich environment that Costanza grew up. In 2010, she begins filming her father, without extra lighting, without prep, just him in his bathrobe. With one hand she hauls down the “1995-2001” box for him from the top shelf, with the other hand she holds the camera. Upon her father’s death she decides to make The Secret Drawer. She stays on and keeps filming – using both hands like a virtuoso. While she empties his house, the film jets through post-war Europe with her father and the world is revealed from a Mediterranean perspective, the daughter stays in the house, staging and performing her relationship with her father. His books and boxes are catalogued, his sense of order transferred. A powerful tidying up process, an upheaval. Yet in these moments of dissolution, a wealth is revealed – and a father. “This archive is showing us a much friendlier person than I thought.” One hand in world history, the other very close to her father himself.
by Costanza Quatriglio Italy / Switzerland 2024 Italian 132’ Colour & Black/White World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Director Costanza Quatriglio
Screenplay Costanza Quatriglio
Cinematography Sabrina Varani
Editing Letizia Caudullo
Music Giovanni Di Giandomenico
Sound Design Marco Furlani
Producers Simone Catania, Costanza Quatriglio, Antonietta Bruni, Francesca Portalupi, Michele Fornasero
Co-Producer Nicola Bernasconi
Co-Production Rough Cat Lugano
Cinecittà Rom
Rai Cinema Rom
RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera Lugano

World sales

Film Harbour

Produced by

Indyca

https://www.indyca.it/en https://www.indyca.it/en

Photos

Costanza Quatriglio

© Azzurra Primavera

Costanza Quatriglio’s debut film was the award-winning The Island, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and was restored in 2023 by Cinecittà Studios in Rome. She has directed films and documentaries garnering awards at numerous international festivals including Venice and Locarno. She won two Nastro d’Argento awards with Terramatta in 2013 and Triangle in 2014. Her recent films include the The Girl Who Didn’t Want to Sing (for television) and The Virus Smuggler.

Filmography

2003 L’isola (The Island) 2006 Il mondo addosso (The World on Their Shoulders) 2009 Il mio cuore umano (My Human Heart) 2013 Terramatta · Con il fiato sospeso (Holding My Breath) 2014 Triangle 2020 Palermo Sospesa 2021 La bambina che non voleva cantare (The Girl Who Didn’t Want to Sing) · Il trafficante di virus (The Virus Smuggler) 2024 Il cassetto segreto (The Secret Drawer)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024