PALIO

By Cosima SPENDER

KARLOVY VARY INT'L FILM FESTIVAL - as FEST

Documentary - Completed 2015

Taking bribes and making deals is as essential as being a good rider in the Palio, the world’s oldest horse race. Giovanni, a young jockey, is up to the challenge when he faces his former mentor on the track. What ensues is a thrilling battle that is at the center of Italian tradition.

Festivals
& Awards

Tribeca FF 2015
World Documentary Feature Competition
    • Year of production
    • 2015
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • UNITED KINGDOM, ITALY
    • Languages
    • ITALIAN, ENGLISH
    • Duration
    • 90 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Cosima SPENDER
    • EIDR
    • 10.5240/DC50-46A5-89FD-F003-26C3-C
    • Producer(s)
    • James GAY-REES, John HUNT
    • Synopsis
    • The Palio is the oldest horse race in the world, and turns the Italian city of Siena into a high-stakes battleground of strategy, intrigue, and simmering machismo. In the eye of the storm stand the jockeys – adored if they succeed, despised if they fail. PALIO follows the legendary maestro Gigi Bruschelli, winner of 13 races and master of the intrigues that surround the Palio, and his former protégé Giovanni Atzeni, a handsome young contender driven by a fearless passion to become number one. This heart-racing new documentary exposes the notoriously closed world of this ancient race and the larger-than-life personalities of those involved in an epic and cinematic tale of Italian life in microcosm.