Catane Romanian-Italian feature film, directed by Ioana Mischie, will have its world premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), held annually in Goa, according to a press release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday.

The main cast, consisting of Costel Cascaval, Iulia Luminare and Cristian Bota, brings to life an inspection committee sent on an apparently simple mission: to clarify the situation of social benefits obtained by a group of villagers. Their investigations, however, uncover many contrasting truths.

'We are honoured by the festival selection at IFFI Goa because it reaffirms that a local story can have a universal impact. For us, this recognition turns cinema into a cultural, spiritual and creative bond,' Ioana Mischie is quoted in the release as saying.

Narratively, Catane brings to the screen a premise rarely explored in cinema. The film takes place in the eponymous village where all residents have obtained disability benefits through ambiguous means. The whole community faces a huge challenge when an official investigation is launched and therefore they join forces, managing with ingenuity to create a disarmingly humorous response to the absurdities of a flawed system. By reinventing their way of life, they reveal not only a means of survival but also a radical model of community resilience in a fractured world, the release reads.

'I wish to portray multiple social perspectives of our hyper fragmented world. In an era of hyper normalised narrative, social and societal conflicts, I aim to find creative ways of reconciliation more than ever and cinema has this power to bring us closer, to heal us, to strengthen our collective spirit. I believe each of us will find ourselves in at least one of the characters in this film if not all of them,' Ioana Mischie added.

Playing the roles of the inspectors are Costel Cascaval, Iulia Lumînare and Cristian Bota. The characters from the higher levels of the authorities are played by Robert Radoveneanu and Alina Chivulescu. The rural community brings together a group of professional and non professional actors, preserving the playful spirit of village life. The cast for the collective rural character includes Bogdan Farcas, Corneliu Ulici, Pavel Ulici, Flavia Hojda, Mihai Dinvale, Nelu Serghei, Mihai Malaimare, Ioana Casetti, Ioana Abur, Tudorel Filimon, Marina Dascalu, Liana Margineanu, Antonia Bodai, Alexia Bodai and many others. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Petronius Craiu; EN - writinng by: Adina Panaitescu)