Anna Gutto: Last News

The Scene 2 Seen podcast is back in a major way!

Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro is gearing up for the lakeside event’s 75th-anniversary edition from August 3 to 13. In his second year in the job, he has pulled together an eclectic programme spanning mainstream Hollywood and experimental filmmaking.

Joe Leydon Film CriticFor those of you who have always wanted to see Juliette Binoche play a foul-mouthed truck driver — and you know who you are — “Paradise Highway” delivers the goods, and then some. This counterintuitive casting is actually just one of the selling points for writer-director Anna Gutto’s solid and satisfying thriller, a shrewdly constructed melodrama that does not transcend cliches and conventions so much as show how useful and effective they can be in the right hands.Offering a précis of the plot could arguably do the movie a disservice, since the narrative pivots on human trafficking — specifically, the trafficking of prepubescent girls.

Marta Balaga Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its 75th edition, sticking to its promise of discovering new talent.A slew of debuting filmmakers will showcase their works, from Italy’s Nicola Prosatore with “Piano Piano” to Caterina Mona, focusing in “Semret” on an Eritrean single mother working at a Zurich hospital and dreaming of becoming a midwife.Thomas Hardiman’s U.K.’s proposition “Medusa Deluxe,” a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition — boarded by New Europe Film Sales — is also bound to generate some excitement.“‘Medusa Deluxe’ is one of the coolest debuts of the year,” the company’s CEO Jan Naszewski enthused to Variety. “I’m sure it will rock the Piazza Grande and give the festival a great spark.”But Locarno will also bring in heavyweights, starting with a screening of the much-anticipated Brad Pitt vehicle “Bullet Train,” directed by “Atomic Blond” helmer David Leitch, and Olivia Newman’s “Where the Crawdads Sing” with Daisy Edgar-Jones and David Strathairn.Anna Gutto’s “Paradise Highway” packs star power as well, starring the likes of Morgan Freeman, “Captain America’s” Frank Grillo and Juliette Binoche, cast as a truck driver forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother from a prison gang.In an interview with Variety earlier this year, the French actor described the role as a “worthwhile challenge.”“I never imagined I’d play a truck driver! I was drawn to incongruity and the prospect of embarking on a new adventure.