Open Roads Heads-up: Aureliano Amadei's 20 CIGARETTES is the must-see of this fest

TrustMovies has now seen two of the three films he'd not yet caught when he posted on this terrific series -- OPEN ROADS -- that is now mid-way through its 8-day run at the FSLC. The chance to see the best Italian films of the past year is nothing to sneeze at, and this year's crop is as fine as ever.

Aureliano Amadei's 20 CIGARETTES may be the find of this fest. Certainly, it is the best movie about the current "western" misadventure in Iraq that I've yet seen. Yet it deals with Italian soldiers and filmmakers over there. It is also the strongest pacifist film in many, many years. Extremely personal, it is the filmmaker's own Iraq experience (which now has Amadei, shown at right, walking haltingly via cane with a degenerative ankle that will eventually leave him with a prosthetic foot) -- it jiggers narrative-based-on-life and the documentary form into the most successful combination I've yet seen: vital, thrilling, funny and supremely moving,  I must see this film again, and I hope you can see it at least once. It plays a final time in Open Roads on Mon., June 6, 2pm.

You can read more in my slightly longer piece on the film published in the Opens Roads Rundown. Click the link preceding to find a description and short review of all the films in the series -- save one. I will see We Believed (Noi Credevamo) later today and report on it tomorrow.