The Handmaiden
by Park Chan-wook (South Korea 2016, 144 min.)
Best Film Not in the English Language – BAFTA Awards 2018
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Sunday 20/5 (9.45 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Korea, 1930. During the Japanese occupation, a complicated criminal plot connects the illiterate pickpocket Sook-hee to the beautiful Hideko, the niece of a sadistic and depraved count. In a bewildering swirl of blackmail, swindles, abuses, tortures and humiliations, a blinding and irremediable passion will explode between the two women and will shape their destiny. After his celebrated Vengeance Trilogy, Park Chan-wook directs a work of aesthetic elegance, where a proud and audacious eroticism involves all the characters, both in a positive and negative way.

Queer Short Films
 Short films   Sede TTB – Monastero del Carmine, Bergamo 

Sunday 20/5 (5.30 pm)

A disrespectful, funny, and touching path through a selection of queer short films that follows the common thread of this Orlando edition: the courage to meet, dare and express yourself.

I Like Girls by Diane Obomsawin (Canada 2016, 8 min.): Four women reveal the background of their first loves. For them discovering to be attracted by other women goes hand in hand with a happy new self consciousness.
Would You Look At Her by Goran Stolevski (Macedonia 2018, 19 min.) – Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction, Sundance Film Festival 2018: A stubborn “tomboy” decides to take part in a ritual reserved to men to solve all her problems.
Homework by Annika Pinske (Germany 2016, 7 min.): A young father and his 12-year-old daughter, a night club, two secrets and a lie that will solve everything.
For Nonna Anna by Luis De Filippis (Canada 2017, 13 min.): When an old woman is entrusted to her trans granddaughter, the two women live a touching moment sharing their own femininity. Presented at Toronto International Film Festival and at the last Sundance.
A Doll’s Eye by Jonathan Wysocki (Usa 2016, 12 min.): Obsessed since childhood by The Shark, a film maker finds out why this film has left such a mark on him.
Candie Boy by Arianna Del Grosso (Italy 2017, 9 min.): Leone has just got a good mark at school and he knows full well what to ask to his parents as a gift: Candie doll dressed in pink.

#todayismyday
by Silvia Gribaudi, with the participants of the Over 60 workshop (duration 20 min.)
In collaboration with Festival Danza Estate
 Performance   Lavatoio di Via Lupo e Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Sunday 13/5 (4 pm): Lavatoio di Via Lupo
Sunday 13/5 (9 pm): Auditorium Piazza Libertà

#oggièilmiogiorno is a performance created by Silvia Gribaudi with Matteo Maffesanti. It requires the participation of the local community. It changes and adapts according to the place and the specific project, whose conception has been decided with the community. In Bergamo the main role in #oggièilmiogiorno is played by the women involved in an Over 60 workshop that focuses on identity, vitality and the body: the courage of daring in action.

How To Draw A Monster
led by Stefania Visinoni
 Workshop   Palomar, Bergamo 

Sunday 20/5 (10.30 am to 11.30 am)
INFO: for children aged 5 or more, 5€ per couple adult/child, reservation required (subject to availability) prenotazioni@orlandofestival.it – tel. +39 380 7775262

“A monster is ugly but sometimes it can also be pretty. It must be really big, but we saw some very little. There are also monstresses and we’ve got proofs.”
Pencils, watercolours, scissors and glue to create wonderful and terrible creatures without effort + a dice game to create monsters combining randomly their body parts.

Thelma
by Joachim Trier (Norway/Sweden/France/Denmark 2017, 116 min.)
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Saturday 19/5 (10.30 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Thelma is a religious, young student. Her mysterious paranormal powers are awakened when she falls in love with a woman, her course mate Anja. Her ultraconservative parents want Thelma to repress those supernatural abilities, but her feelings towards Anja trigger increasingly strong seizures. As a consequence, Thelma is forced to deal with her past and with her desires. A supernatural and romantic thriller from the acclaimed Norwegian director.

Manivald Goes To Woolfywood
by Chintis Lundgren (Canada/Croatia/Estonia 2017, 93 min.)
in collaboration with Bergamo Film Meeting
 Short film   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Saturday 19/5 (10.30 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Manivald goes to look for his love, a plumber named Toomas. He gets lost on his way and meets some interesting wolves.
This year our collaboration with Bergamo Film Meeting takes the form of a new section running through all the evenings of Orlando and dedicated to the animation films of Chintis Lundgren. We will show a selection of her short films, as well as a preview of her new queer work, Manivald.

Going West
by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (Norway 2017, 83 min.)
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Saturday 19/5 (9 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

A young music teacher who has been recently fired accepts to take his transgender father on a road trip to the west coast of Norway. They will take part in a quilting competition in order to honour the excellent embroidery skills of his recently deceased mother. With this film Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, one of the new voices of the Norwegian cinema, combines irony and pathos to tell us about father-son relationships and the difficulty of accepting yourself and opening up to others.

Toilet Disastro!
 ORLANDO (Never) Ending Party   Clash Club, Bergamo 

Friday 18/5 (11.30 pm)
INFO: entrance 8€ until 00.30 am (1 drink included), 12€ after 00.30 pm (1 drink included).

This is not the end!
The oddest party in the city during the Toilet resident night! Are you ready to become a dancing queen (or queer?) for a night? Undress from shame… and come as you are!
The alternative, rock, pop, dance and disco DJ mix of Erik Deep and LoZelmo will also give the right surreal welcome to the first Pride in Bergamo!

Tinta bruta
by Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher (Brazil 2018, 118 min.)
Teddy Award: Best Feature Film – Berlinale International Film Festival 2018
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Friday 18/5 (10.15 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles



While facing criminal charges, Pedro must grapple with his sister’s decision to move to the other side of the country. Alone in the darkness of his bedroom, he dances covered in neon paint, while thousands of strangers watch him via webcam. Set in a rather unfriendly Porto Alegre, the film is a disillusioned portrait of young queers looking for intimacy, safety and sense of community.

Life With H. Rott
by Chintis Lundgren (Estonia/Croatia/Denmark 2015, 11 min.)
in collaboration with Bergamo Film Meeting
 Short film   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Friday 18/5 (9.30 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Herman H. Rott is a punk rat who only cares about drinking, smoking and listening to grindcore music. His life changes when he decides to live with a cat who loves tidiness, Čajkovskij, Vivaldi, Bach and Beethoven. Their life together has surprising effects on Hermann, who becomes obsessed with tidying and cleaning. But perhaps this new Hermann is not so charming anymore…

Calamity
by Séverine De Streyker and Maxime Feyers (Belgium 2017, 23 min.)
Best Short Jury Award – Sardinia Queer Short Film Festival 2017
 Short film – Preview  Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Friday 18/5 (9.30 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

France insists on meeting her son’s girlfriend. Chloé will make her lose control.

I’ll Tell Only You
curated by Lucio Guarinoni (duration 20 min.)
A project by Spazi Giovanili di Bergamo and Immaginare Orlando, in collaboration with Consorzio Solco Città Aperta and Arci Bergamo
 Performance   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Friday 18/5 (8.30 pm)

Closing performance of the theatre project Sguardi di un certo genere (A gendered kind of glimpse), with boys and girls aged 15 to 20. On stage: Gaia, Mehdi, Yuri, Ghani, Lara, Francesco, Carolina, Laura, Letizia, Morticia; video and photos by Sara Luraschi, Angela Ferrari, Lucia Zengh.

Indoor
exhibition by Luca Brama, curated by Elio Grazioli
in cooperation with G. Carrara Academy of Fine Arts and with the contribution of AP design
 Exhibition   GIACOMO via Quarenghi 48 c/d, Bergamo 

8-20 May, from Thursday to Saturday (4 am to 6.30 pm)
Opening: Monday 7 May 5 pm
Special opening: Friday 18 May 6 pm with DJ mix by Andrea Abate
INFO: free entry

INDOOR is an exhibition made of frames taken from amateur pornographic videos found online. It operates a twisting on two different levels: the first one is the relocation from a pornographic context to a personal and intimate context, transforming the rawness of pornography into affection and alienation. The second one is the relocation within the expressive and technical mode of the pornographic video itself, in particular of the prescriptive features of the porn script that thus goes off the rails and reveals what is off script instead.

iD – Performance For One Viewer
by and with Dynamis (duration: 30 min.)
 Performance   Ex Ateneo, Bergamo 

Friday 18/5, Saturday 19/5 and Sunday 20/5 (10.30 am to 7 pm every 30 min.)
INFO: Reservation required prenotazioni@orlandofestival.it – tel. +39 380 7775262

Our identity is legally defined by a document (Identity Document) that establishes our official and acceptable characteristics.
iD brings different identities together in order to investigate prejudice in a performance that is as delicate and intimate as the encounter of two strangers can be. A space of equal exchange between two individuals that are temporarily freed from their prejudices.

Queerama
by Daisy Asquith (UK 2018, 70 min.)
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Thursday 17/5 (10.45 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

In a little more than a hundred years the UK has moved from the criminalisation of homosexuality to the recognition of marriage equality. Using excerpts from the BFI National Archive, director Daisy Asquith retraces a century of history of the LGBT British movement through struggles, demands, discriminations, sexual liberation and gay pride. The overwhelming soundtrack with music by John Grant, Goldfrapp and Hercules & Love Affair blends with original footage and archive images in a heartfelt and touching tribute to the pioneers of the civil rights.

Manivald
by Chintis Lundgren (Canada/Croatia/Estonia 2017, 13 min.)
 Short film   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Thursday 17/5 and Sunday 20/5 (9 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

A bizarre love triangle develops and things soon get out of hand. The protagonist of the story, a gay fox named Manivald, still lives at home with his mother. The day before his 33rd birthday, a sexy young wolf comes to fix their washing machine. The situation escalates quickly and Manivald decides to leave his mother’s house. He will end up in the company of an odd group of drunk rabbits.

God’s Own Country
by Francis Lee (UK 2017, 105 min.)
World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic – Sundance Film Festival 2017
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Thursday 17/5 (9 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Brokeback Mountain meets Weekend. Johnny is a young farmer who numbs his frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex. The arrival at his farm of a Romanian worker is going to mark the beginning of a new season in his life. In his début, Francis Lee takes us to the cold and muddy British countryside to tell us about the complexity of opening up to the other person and letting yourself go. Realism and romanticism blend and alternate seamlessly in this intense and self-discovery love story that has moved the audience of the most important festivals, from London to Berlin including the Sundance Festival.

Dolores
by and with Jessica Leonello (duration 15 min.)
 Performance   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Thursday 17/5 (8.30 pm)

Dolores is a puppet. Like every puppet she can dare to ridicule humans and the reality. She can perform emotions and human experiences, lacing them with superb irony and sarcasm. She can tell us about love, change and transformation. Dolores is a transsexual woman. Dolores knows what is what, and sometimes you get the feeling that she has made a pact with the devil to beat death through a great deal of whole and enveloping lightness.

Les garçons sauvages
by Bertrand Mandico (France 2017, 110 min.)
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Wednesday 16/5 (10 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

At the beginning of the 20th century, five adolescents of good families commit a savage crime. As a punishment, a Dutch Captain takes them in charge for a repressive cruise on a haunted sailboat. Their port of call is a supernatural island with luxuriant vegetation that holds a disturbing secret. Videoartist Bertrand Mandico creates a surreal work that, from its first sequence, aims at amazing the viewer. Everything in Les garçons sauvages helps to show the perpetual blurring of an ethic and aesthetic border that can always be crossed in a liberating act that frees vital, bodily and animalistic drives.

#merrychristmas
by Chintis Lundgren (Estonia/Croatia 2015, 64 sec.)
in collaboration with Bergamo Film Meeting
 Short film   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Wednesday 16/5 (10 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Santa Claus has had a very long day…
This year our collaboration with Bergamo Film Meeting takes the form of a new section running through all the evenings of Orlando and dedicated to the animation films of Chintis Lundgren. We will show a selection of her short films, as well as a preview of her new queer work, Manivald.

Slap And Tickle
by and with Liz Aggiss (UK – duration: 60 min.)
Winner of a Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Festival 2017, presented as a National Premiere at Gender Bender Festival 2017. In collaboration with Domina Domna Festival.
 Performance   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Wednesday 16/5 (8.30 min)
INFO: reservation recommended prenotazioni@orlandofestival.it – tel. +39 380 7775262



Subversive, funny, indomitable and fearless: so has been described the British performance artist Liz Aggiss. Slap and Tickle is a reflection on cultural mores and sexual taboos. Using a caustic style, it offers a display of women devoid of any political correctness. No one escapes interpretations and contradictions: girls, mothers, bitches and senior citizens. Beating a path through the personal and historical, Aggiss creates a feminist soup including expressionist movement, music hall, costume change and prop manipulation.

Naz & Maalik
by Jay Dockendorf (USA 2016, 85 min.)
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Tuesday 15/5 (10.45 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

Naz and Maalik are two black Muslim teenage boys who are living their new secret relationship in post 9/11 Brooklyn. For fear of being uncovered by others, they behave in a secretive and suspicious way, attracting the attention of an FBI agent, who starts watching them closely. With an intimate and light style, Naz & Maalik portrays two teenagers who are dealing with their identities.

They
by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (USA/Qatar 2017, 80 min.)
 Film – Preview   Auditorium Piazza Libertà, Bergamo 

Tuesday 15/5 (9 pm)
INFO: film screened in the original language with Italian subtitles

To refer to J, a simple “I” is not enough. It is actually necessary to use “they”. A “they” that contains a surprising inner plurality, since the protagonist of this film is experiencing many doubts and different feelings. In fact, the teenager J is exploring their gender identity. But after years of medication, therapy and hormone blockers it is time to make a decision. A small film, light and touching at the same time, about the unlimited and unpredictable possibilities of being.

The director Anahita Ghazvinizadeh will be present for Q&A

To Be (Yourself) Or Not To Be
in cooperation with Centro Isadora Duncan and the association Bergamo contro l’omofobia
 Activities for schools   Auditorium Piazza della Libertà, Bergamo 

Wednesday 16/5 and Thursday 17/5 (10 am to 1 pm)
INFO: the schools interested in the educational workshops organised during the year can contact us formazione@orlandofestival.it – tel. +39 380 7775262

Two mornings reserved to high schools, devoted to the topic of homophobia.

Over 60 Project
led by Silvia Gribaudi
in cooperation with Festival Danza Estate
 Workshop   Toolbox, Bergamo 

15-20 May (10 am to 11.30 am)
INFO: admission free, reservation required (subject to availability) prenotazioni@orlandofestival.it – tel. +39 380 7775262

Theatre and dance workshop with women over 60 who would like to face an artistic experience of community, experimenting movement through the free and creative expression of their bodies. This will allow them to approach themselves and the others. There will be a closing performance open to the public on Sunday 20 May: #oggièilmiogiorno (#todayismyday).

Performative Practices
led by Silvia Calderoni and Ilenia Caleo
in cooperation with G. Carrara Academy of Fine Arts
 Workshop    Accademia di belle arti G. Carrara, Bergamo 

Tuesday 15/5, Wednesday 16/5 and Thursday 17/5 (9.30 am to 5.30 pm)
INFO: reserved to the students of the Academy

Silvia Calderoni and Ilenia Caleo put into play their experience with the students of the G. Carrara Academy of Fine Arts: rhythm, compositional intelligence, stage writing, body action, repetition, sweat, music, for everyone who hears the present screaming and screams off-key. Three days working with the body and imagination to apply improvisation techniques and stage composition: the presence of the performer, the variation of his/her temperatures and intensities, his/her precision.

Populous
In cooperation with ARCI Bergamo and Ink Club
 ORLANDO 2018 Opening   Circolo Arci Ink Club, Bergamo 

Saturday 12/5 (from 10 pm)
INFO: admission free with ARCI card

Andrea Mangia, aka Populous, presents a dance floor mix out of the gender box (of every type). And he does it with Azulejos, in an opening party where music becomes the changeable, suspended and global context where you can live yourself without restrictions.

Inascolto
in cooperation with Lagostore Bergamo
 ORLANDO 2018 Opening   Noam, Bergamo 

Saturday 12/5 (6.30 pm)
INFO: admission by donation

Artistic and musical performances by INASCOLTO and toast + show cooking by Bruno Bovelacci.

Naked And Brave
led by Silvia Briozzo and Carmen Pellegrinelli
 Workshop   Spazio Giovanile Boccaleone, Bergamo 

Saturday 12/5 (10to 1 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm) and Sunday 13/5 (9.30 am to 1.30 pm)
INFO: 80€ reservation required (subject to availability) prenotazioni@orlandofestival.it – tel. +39 380 7775262

A theatre workshop to discover our hidden identities, what we would like to be. Theatre is our compass. Our eyes are the measure of the distances. We take a photo. We are giraffes with long eye-lashes, we are lions with the mane in the wind, we are gazelles suspended in a jump. We are naked, we are many and our eyes smile.