SOY NERO by Rafi Pitts in Berlinale Competition – Nomination for Amnesty International Film Prize 2016

Rafi Pitts' new feature film SOY NERO will celebrate its world premiere in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Alongside the nomination for the Golden Bear, SOY NERO was also nominated for the Amnesty International Film Prize 2016 as the only feature film from the Competition section. The aim of the prize is to draw the attention of audiences and representatives of the film industry to films dealing with human rights. The director Rafi Pitts as well as the actors Johnny Ortiz, Aml Ameen and Darrell Britt-Gibson and the military advisor and former Green Card Soldier Daniel Torres will present SOY NERO in Berlin.

SOY NERO marks Rafi Pitts' third time in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2006 his film IT'S WINTER was selected for Official Competition and in 2010 he attended the Berlin International Film Festival with THE HUNTER in Competition again.

A film by Rafi Pitts

Germany, France, Mexico 2016, 120 minutes

with Johnny Ortiz, Rory Cochrane, Aml Ameen, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Ian Casselberry,

Rosa Frausto, Khleo Thomas, Alex Frost, Michael Harney

WORLD PREMIERE: Berlin International Film Festival (11.-21.02.2016)

Synopsis: Nero is running in the desert. He is trying to escape. He is running from the U.S. border patrol. He is captured. Nero is a 19-year-old deported Mexican. After several attempts Nero finally manages to return and make his way back into the Promised Land. He follows the trail of his hometown, Los Angeles, to find his older brother Jesus. Jesus has set himself up in a new life, living with a girl named Mercedes. Nero begins to realize that as an illegal immigrant, his chances of leading a regular life will not be easy to come by. In an ultimate attempt to escape his desperate reality, Nero decides to enlist in the U.S. Army as a “Green Card Soldier”, a short cut to citizenship. Nero is lost in a maze, a desolate landscape, where the boundaries between the immigrant in uniform and the U.S. soldier are difficult to perceive. Although it soon becomes clear that while a soldier fights for a nation, the Green Card Soldier, Nero, fights to obtain his identity… SOY NERO.

Rafi Pitts' films have attained acclaim and awards around the globe. His first feature, THE FIFTH SEASON, was the first Franco-Iranian coproduction since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and premiered in Venice. SANAM was hailed by French critics as the Iranian THE 400 BLOWS. In 2003 Pitts presented his controversial feature documentary ABEL FERRARA NOT GUILTY in Locarno. IT'S WINTER premiered in the Berlin Competition, and one year later, the Seattle International Film Festival honored Pitts with the Emerging Masters Award for his work. In 2010 Pitts' fifth feature THE HUNTER was also nominated for the Berlin Golden Bear. Born 1967 in Iran, Pitts spent his childhood in Tehran. During the war between Iran and Iraq, in 1981, he fled the country and moved to Britain. He graduated in 1991 from Harrow College – Polytechnic of Central London with a BA (Hons) Degree in Film and Photography. His first short, IN EXILE, was presented the same year at the London International Film Festival. In the 90s Pitts moved to Paris and worked on films by Leos Carax, Jacques Doillon and Jean-Luc Godard.

SOY NERO is a production of Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany) and Pallas Film (Germany) in coproduction with Senorita Films (France) and Pimienta Films (Mexico). International sales are handled by the world sales The Match Factory.