The Venice Film Festival, set to open on 2 September, will feature a lineup of notably long and politically forthright films. Among the selections are Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa's three-hour film 'Imperium', which explores the Italian Communist party's visit to the Soviet Union, and American director Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary 'Musk' about Elon Musk.
Also screening is Julia Loktev's 'My Undesirable Friends: Part II', a video diary about Russian dissident journalists in exile, which runs for over five hours. For those seeking even longer viewing, Luca Guadagnino's 'Joie de Vivre', an analysis of Bernardo Bertolucci's films, clocks in at seven hours.
These extensive titles mark a shift for the festival, which has previously focused more on glitz and glamour. Loznitsa's documentary aims to challenge perceptions of the Soviet Union, while Loktev's work gives a platform to journalists silenced by Putin. Gibney's film on Musk has been described by the tycoon as a "hit job".