Film screened in presence of director Alessandro Negrini

The multi-award-winning documentary film Paradiso is being screened at the Cinema Detour in collaboration with the IrishFilmFesta on Thursday 15 January at 20.45, in the presence of its director Alessandro Negrini.

The film, which will be shown in its original English-language version with Italian subtitles, will be introduced by the IrishFilmFesta's artistic director, Susanna Pellis, and will be followed by a discussion with Turin director Negrini.

Paradiso was filmed in the city of Derry in Northern Ireland, in the predominantly Protestant enclave known as The Fountain. The film follows the ambitious efforts of musical troubadour Roy Arbuckle as he reunites his former showband, the Signetts, for a major dance event uniting Protestants and Catholics in a community long-divided by fear, politics and sectarian violence.

Described as a "colorful, melancholic and ironic musical journey", Paradiso was commissioned by the BBC and has won 17 international awards as well as being nominated in more than 50 film festivals around the world.

Its director told Wanted in Rome: "I believe that what makes the film universal, capable of being translated into different cultures is the idea that, everywhere there is a wall, a sharp division between people, there is also the memory of the times when those divisions weren't there. The idea that the worst possible aspect of any division is not the wall, but getting used to that wall. Then there is also the power of music and dance as an antidote to fear, the fear of "the other"."

Paradiso will be preceded by the screening of three short films from the IrishFilmFesta: Her Mother's Daughters, After You, and Irish Folk Furniture.

For more details see Cinema Detour website and for more about the director see Negrini's website.