Italian For Beginners (Dogma '95)
Romantic comedy made according to the Dogma 95 rules about the participants of an Italian for beginners course in a sleepy Danish provincial town.
A hairdresser, the girl from the bakery shop, the manager of a restaurant, the manager of the sports facility, the new vicar; all are alone in life. And so they enrol in an ‘Italian for beginners’ course. Perhaps it is the hope of a little ‘amore’ that makes them toil over the difference between a pizza and a piazza. During a trip to Venice, they can put what they have learned into practice – and the Italian sun is given the opportunity to bring people together.
Italian For Beginners was made according to the rules of the Dogma 95 manifesto – with handheld camerawork and coarse-grained images – and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, where the film won four awards, including a Silver Bear (Jury Prize) and an audience award from readers of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.