Alessandro Grande’s award-winning film ‘Bismillah’ shares the story of an illegal family facing unfathomable circumstances

Winner of the Oscar-qualifying David di Donatello Award at the Italian Oscars

Alessandro Grande’s award-winning Italian film Bismillah tackles an important issue that illegal families can face, but is a film about love and hope. This topical film was selected by the Oscar-qualifying film festivals: the Busan International Short Film Festival, Flicker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival and Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, as well as over fifty prestigious film festivals around the world. The film stars Francesco Colella (Trust) and introduces Basma Bouhali, Belhassen Bouhali and Linda Mresy.

A Tunisian girl lives illegally with her teenage brother and father in Italy. One night she finds herself alone facing a huge problem, one that might be too big for her to handle.

Italian director and screenwriter Alessandro Grande holds social issues close to his heart. After graduating, his debut film In My Prison, received over 100 festival selections and won over 40 awards around the world, including the Amnesty International Award and the Fandango award.  His second film Margerita starred Moni Ovadia, Francesca Valtorta (Squadra Antimafia – Palermo Oggi) and a group of non-professional Roma gypsies. The film tackled integration and won over 80 awards, as well as being broadcast on the Studio Universal channel.

Bismillah was produced by Indaco Film and is distributed by Zen Movie Distribution. This important film was co-produced by Alessandro Grande and Luca Marino, the stunning music was created by Gianluca Sibaldi and the beautiful cinematography was created by Francesco di Pierro. The film was made with the support of the Calabria Film Commission and with the Rai Cinema Channel.

The film recently won the Amnesty International Award for Best Short Film at Giffoni Film Festival, who recognized the film’s important message of illegal immigrants having access to health care, which should be a basic human right.