Abstract: Moving from art to politics, this chapter examines European A festivals’ claims to a political-humanist universality. I investigate how such claims are underpinned by their construction of, and contradictory attempts to integrate, figures of the social other. I consider this as a kind of product differentiation: a mode of distinction from film festivals’ nominal opponent, Hollywood. The chapter investigates the status of gay, Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek as not only an auteur, but figure of “acceptable otherness,” as well as Karlovy Vary's representation of Facing Window (2003) as a narrative of closure through the integration of a queer, Jewish “other,” Davide. The chapter concludes that European film festivals’ promotion of social inclusion is undercut by their investment in structures of difference.

Keywords: otherness, art cinema, Italian cinema, film festivals, Ferzan Ozpetek, queer cinema

Giovanna has not yet reached thirty but she already has several years of a somewhat “tired” marriage with Filippo behind her. She divides her time between a tedious job, two small children and extra work as a baker for a local cafe. The only way for her to relieve her stress is the occasional night-time observation of an attractive young man living in the flat opposite and the fabrication of dreams. Giovanna's stereotypical life is disturbed by an old man Filippo brings home one evening. Her initial mistrust turns to increasing fascination with a person swathed in mystery whose layers she gradually begins to peel away. The strange life of the eighty-year-old Davide influences Giovanna's life more than she is prepared to admit. Ozpetek's new film, depicting the force of an unusual encounter which offers hope for a new and happier life, won five Davids at the Italian National Film Awards, including one for Best Film, Best Actress (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and Best Actor (Italian film legend Massimo Girotti, who died in January 2003).