The Man with the Lantern

Mario Garau was Sardinian and worked in the Credito Italiano Bank. Halfway through the 1920s he was posted to China to work in the Italian Bank of China, in Tientsin and Shanghai. This was still the period of the International Concessions and the Unequal Treaties. The banker was my uncle, and from when I was a little girl I can remember his trunks – containing objects, 8mm films and photos – arriving in our home. For decades, these exotic objects, and the very restricted information on this close but absent relation, filled my imagination and led me to try to find out much more about this mysterious figure. The film uses photos, documents and previously unseen film footage to tell the story of my uncle and the rarely mentioned or remembered world of the International Concessions in the Far East less than a century ago, but it also tells the story of how his life became interwoven with mine, and with my own choices.
I tried to travel mentally with him, to discover whether it was possible to recount the complexities of another life, to understand another person by researching the events that shaped their existence. Thus the interweaving of my life with my uncle’s explores by extension the process of anyone relating their life with those of the real or imaginary people who influence them.

Directed by Francesca Lixi

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With the contribution of Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
With the support of Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission and of Comune di Cagliari

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Facebook: facebook.com/LUomoConLaLanterna

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FESTIVAL

2018
“Corso Salani” Award at the 29° Trieste Film Festival – Alpe Adria Cinema

IsReal – Festival di Cinema del Reale

Visioni Italiane Officinema

Sguardi Altrove | Concorso Nuovi Sguardi

Mantova Film Fest

Annecy Cinéma Italien

Valdarnocinema Film Festival

2019
Jury Award | Italia in Doc – Bruxelles

Terre di Confine Film Festival

Italia Oggi – Italian cinema in Bulgaria

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