The documentary film about a couple who fight Parkinson’s disease together is on tour in selected Italian cinemas until April 21st.
He was born on April 11, 1817 James Parkinson, the doctor who first recognized the disease that bears his name as a medical condition. The degenerative disease whose symptoms can currently be alleviated but still not cured, affects around 300 thousand people in Italy alone. In recent years, attention on Parkinson’s disease has grown, as has the work of scientists and doctors in the search for a cure, thanks to the Michael J. Fox Foundation which collects funds and allocates them to specialized centers around the world.
There World Parkinson’s Day It therefore falls on April 11th and for this purpose the documentary film is circulating in some Italian cinemas Tango of life. The story follows the life of Claudio and Ivana, a farmer and a seamstress who live in a small town in the middle of the countryside a few kilometers from Cuneo. They are passionate tango dancers and have a big dream: dancing tango in Buenos Aires. Claudio has Parkinson’s, an incurable neuro-degenerative disease. Twenty years ago, doctors told him that within two years he would end up in a wheelchair. Today Claudio not only walks and works in the fields, but he continues to dance and dedicates himself to promoting research on the benefits of tango for Parkinson’s patients. The story of Claudio and Ivana inspired the famous Latvian composer Arturs Maskats to compose a tango together with the accordion star Ksenija Sidorova. But just as their dream of dancing in Buenos Aires is about to come true, Claudio is admitted to hospital. Tango della vita is scheduled this evening in Rome at the Farnese cinema at 9pm. At the end, the audience will meet the director Erica Liffredo and the two protagonists Claudio Rabbia And Ivana Revelli.
“I have known Claudio since I was a child” explains Liffredo who directed the film together with Krista Burāne. “Over the last five years I have become a constant presence in his life with Ivana. They have welcomed me, giving me full access to their everyday lives, their thoughts, fears and hopes. I am with them as they go to work, during visits medical treatment and hospitalization, and of course in moments of dancing. I tell the emotions, fears and dreams of two people who fight and dance for life. The changing of the seasons, seen through work in the fields, marks the passage of time. It represents the seasons of life itself, from discovery to struggle, from fear to acceptance. The nightmare of Parkinson’s and the dream of Argentina alternate in a crescendo of fear and hope, accompanied by the music that Arturs Maskats is writing for them.”
Below is a clip of the film, further down the trailer.
Tango of life: where to see the documentary film
The result of a co-production between Italy and Latvia, Tango of life was created thanks to the commitment of B&B Film with Rai Cinema, in collaboration with VFS Films, Media, MIC with the support of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte – Piemonte Doc Film Fund, of the Regional Fund for cinema of the Lazio Region and with the support by National Film Center of Latvia.
Tango of life will also be in the Ferrini cinemas in Caraglio (Cuneo) on 12 April, Teatro Impero in Brindisi on 13 April, Rouge et Noir in Palermo on 15 April and Multilanghe in Dogliani (Cuneo) on 19, 20 and 21 April.
Below is the trailer of the film.
