After winning the Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Film Festival in May, Matteo Garrone's Reality will finally open in Italian cinemas on the 27th of September.
In Garrone's reversal of The Truman Show motif, Neapolitan fishmonger Luciano tries out for Grande Fratello (Italian Big Brother) and becomes so obsessed with his impending fame that he convinces himself the studio is filming his home life 24 hours a day.
With Reality, Garrone's attempt at comedy becomes a bittersweet critique of the Italian fascination with reality television. As the protagonist Luciano, played by Aniello Arena, caters to non-existant cameras, his world takes on circus-like proportions and colours in a fantastical adventure Garrone calls "a modern Pinocchio".
Garrone previously won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and the Grand Prix at Cannes for his 2008 film Gomorrah, a harshly realistic look at the Mafia's infiltration of Italian society. Though Reality is also based on a true story, Garrone shifts his directorial style from Gomorrah's neorealism to a new Felliniesque magical realism.
After its release at Cannes, Reality has sold well in markets around the world. It has been picked up for American release in 2013 by Oscilloscope Laboratories, but no UK release has been announced.
