Winner of the Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear, Elio Germano delivers a knockout performance in Hidden Away, an authentic and visionary portrait of the exceptional artist Antonio Ligabue.

The son of an emigrant Italian mother, Toni (Elio Germano, Bad Tales IFF20) is deported from Switzerland after his mother’s death. Sent to Italy against his will, he lives for years in abject poverty on the banks of the river Po, with no fixed abode and little work, but remaining true to his great passion for drawing.

Meeting the sculptor Renato Marino Mazzacurati sets him on the path to liberation as he convinces him to take up painting. Marginalised and often mocked, Ligabue becomes an imaginative artist who paints a fantasy world of tigers, gorillas and jaguars. Delving into the artist’s dark side and horrific visions, but also his need to be understood and acknowledged, director Giorgio Diritti delivers a passionate biopic about Antonio Ligabue, a revolutionary loner in modern art. (Italy, 2020).

Italian language, English subtitles.