FLAMINGOS Game #1

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FENICOTTERI – Game #1

Short film created and interpreted by Valerio Malorni Saba Salvemini Annika Strøhm

FILM SYNOPSIS
Fenicotteri is a simple game around the void.
A video of 24 minutes that tells the story of how two men, imprisoned in a postcard, become soldiers, friends and mortal enemies at the end. It is also the story of how two noble men pass their days playing life until the arriving of a woman saves them from evasion. A story of a mis-en-scène where no one is neither winner nor loser.

The work started from an idea regarding the meeting. A simple meeting where two men within a defined space can play their own story with their own intimate language, just for the enjoyment of being together.
The language they speak is a sort of grammelot (an invented language) that doesn’t belong to any nation, but is created by them in their meeting with each other. Only two times they speak a codified language and that is when they sing and at the very end.
A tribute to the world told by Beckett and to the ancient myth of Cain and Abel to whom we wished to offer a way out. “A way out” which you stumble onto by way of distraction, but it happens only when you honestly abandon the idea of wanting to give an absolute meaning to life. It is a Game#1 without winners, played for the taste of playing. Nothing else but to try to seek the balance standing on one foot only, having two of them. A provocation. A provocation around which we oscillate every day.
A postcard, life, is the place of the action. A place where time moves, is fixed, is lost, welcomes and strangles the two characters try-outs of finding a way out. A frame where two men-flamingos play on one leg only until they are forced to come back to earth on two feet.
A passtime from which the only thing that remains is a migration towards the antique nomadism of our hearts constrained in our bodies.
The video was filmed the 31st of December 2008 from sunrise to sunset.
This work started from a series of theatre studies realised in 2008 and2009 inBiella, Roma andBari, and is still to be seen as a work in progress.
Valerio Malorni, Saba Salvemini and Annika Strøhm are professional artists from the theatre world and this is their first film making
These are some considerations that has played a big part when creating this film. We would appreciate now if you would forget it all and simply enjoy the story.

HISTORY
Flamingos Game#1 won the prize for THE BETS SHORTFILM Valpolicella Film Festival.
Selected to FilmStock Festival (UK) section – Your short attention -, Trani Film Festival, PalenaFilmFestival, Piemonte Film Festival…. See www.vimeo.com
CAST LIST
Flamingo 1  – Valerio Malorni
Flamingo 2  – Saba Salvemini
Lady            – Annika Strøhm

CREDITS
A production
MalorniSalvemini and Areté Ensemble
Created and performer by
Valerio Malorni Saba Salvemini Annika Strøhm
Setting audio
Matteo Salvemini – DoubleM
Miyuki Hayakawa – DoubleM
Costumes
Marialinda Fusella
Shooting and editing
Fenicotteri
Acknowledgements
Hermes Di Salvia – Zerottanta
Annagiulia D’Onghia – Zerottanta
Luca Franco

Fenicotteri Game #1 is created and performed by Saba Salvemini, Valerio Malorni, Annika Strøhm.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHIES
Short curriculum of the artists Saba Salvemini and Valerio Malorni

Saba Salvemini obtained  his diploma from  the Theatre Academy of Genoa  – Scuola dello Stabile di Genova.  He has studied and work with,  among others, J. Alschitz, A.Milenin, J.P.Denizon, G. Borgia, C. Bos-Kroese, S. Gonnella, L. Sicignano. In 2007 he founded the association  ARETE’ ENSEMBLE together with Annika Strøhm.

Valerio Malorni actor, dancer, writer and director.  He obtained his diploma from  the Theatre school  Mario Scaccia. He has studied and worked with, among others, G. Barberio Corsetti, D. Donnè, A. Milenin, J.P. Denizon, V. Oshlansky, G. Scaramuzzo
Saba Salvemini, Valerio Malorni have their background mainly from theatre. They have different theatre education; having studied and worked with various European theatre masters. For the past two years they collaborate working in theatres and festivals. They have no background from pure contemporary art. This short film is their first production  and the first time they emancipate from a more theatrical context.
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