November 1, 2021
Michele Braga & Gabriele Mainetti Score Mainetti’s FREAKS OUT
Rome, 1943: Matilde, Cencio, Fulvio and Mario are family when the 2nd world war hits Rome. Israel, the owner of their circus, disappears in the attempt to find a getaway overseas for them all. The four friends are in disarray. Without anyone looking after them but above all, without the circus, they lose their social placement and they feel only as sideshow attractions on the loose in a city at war. But someone has set their eyes on them, with a plan that could change their destinies… and the course of history.
Directed by Gabriele Mainetti (TIGER BOY, THE CALL ME JEEG, NINGYO), this film is an Italian historical-fantasy drama film. “FREAKS OUT stems from a challenge: that of setting against the background of the darkest episode of the 20th century a film that would be at once an adventure story, a Bildungsroman and – not least – a reflection on diversity,” described director Mainetti. “To do it we approached the occupied city of Rome in 1943 with emotion and respect, but at the same time we gave free rein to our imagination: and so our four freaks were born, unique and unrepeatable individuals, protagonists of a story that is bigger than them.”
The film’s musical score is jointly composed by Mainetti and Michele Braga (DOGMAN, THEY CALL ME JEEG, ROSE ISLAND, IAGO).
The film was entered in the main competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, and has thus far received mixed reviews, with a positive opinion coming from Zhuo-Ning Su of Awards Daily, who wrote that “…it’s commercial filmmaking at its most rousing and invigorating… FREAKS OUT…takes on the horrors of Nazi Germany to unexpectedly poignant and massively entertaining effect.”
Watch the film’s Italian trailer (subtitled in English):
