Girlfriend in a Coma

[pro-bassoonist]

PRESS RELEASE:

AVAILABLE ON DVD EXCLUSIVELY FROM AMAZON 22ND APRIL 2013

Directed by Annalisa Piras

Written by Bill Emmott & Annalisa Piras

Featuring the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch as Dante

CHANGE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA is the controversial documentary which charts the potentially terminal decline of today’s Italy. Directed by Italian writer and journalist Annalisa Piras and co-written with author and ex- Economist editor Bill Emmott, the film, which studies the past 20 years of Italian politics and the many scandals surrounding Silvio Berlusconi, has already angered the Italian political establishment and is available in the UK on DVD exclusively through Amazon on the 22nd April.

Emmott is the author of best-selling books on Italy’s decline, both in Italian (Forza, Italia - Rizzoli, 2010) and in English (Good Italy, Bad Italy – Yale University Press, 2012) and decided to make sounding the alarm about Italy’s decline a personal project. The documentary springs from his profound exploration of the country and its society, blending his independent outsider’s view with the passion and insider outlook of Annalisa Piras, one of the million-strong diaspora of Italians who left the country during the Berlusconi era.


Italy is a country tottering towards dramatic decline, with a kleptocratic and incompetent political class, a financially bankrupt State, raging corruption, organized crime, a sclerotic and anti-feminist Church, a shambling economy – oh, and of course a few decades of horrible government by a “Bunga-Bunga” Prime-Minister, Silvio Berlusconi – all combining to knock one of Europe’s most vibrant societies on the head.

Those interviewed for the film include Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco, film director Nanni Moretti, women’s rights activist Lorella Zanardo, FIAT Chairman and Agnelli family heir John Elkann, FIAT’s outspoken Canadian-Italian CEO Sergio Marchionne, Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, the author of “Gomorrah” Roberto Saviano; former European Commissioner Emma Bonino, trade union leader Susanna Camusso and many others.

Featuring animation from London-based Phoebe Boswell and the voice of actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) as Dante, the film will be available from 22nd April on Amazon.co.uk

Pro-B