Julien Paolini (born 20 June 1986) is a French-Italian film director and screenwriter.[1] In 2018, he made his feature directorial debut with Amare amaro. His second feature, Karmapolice, was released in 2023.
Early life
Paolini was born on 20 June 1986 in Florence, Italy,[2] to a Sicilian father and a French mother.[3] He moved to Colombes, a northwestern suburb of Paris.[2] He began writing at a very young age, starting with short stories.[4]
In October 2018, he presented his feature-length directorial debut Amare amaro in competition at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz International Film Festival.[16] Shot in Sicily,[17] the Italian-language film recounts the journey of a French baker who fights to bury his murdered brother in a Sicilian village which forbids him from doing so.[18] In the film, he directed actors Syrus Shahidi, Tony Sperandeo and Celeste Casciaro. The drama is a reimagining of the tragedy of Antigone in the form of a nocturnal crime thriller with elements reminiscent of Western films.[19]Télérama critic Pierre Murat hailed the film as a great success.[18]L'Express compared it to the gangster films of Martin Scorsese.[20]Amare amaro won the Grand Prix at the Festival Polar de Cognac.[21] In July 2019, it was screened as an international premiere at the 65th Taormina Film Fest, where Paolini said, "As an Italian emigrant in France who grew up between the two countries, my films all tell the story of modern multi-identity".[17][22]
His second feature film, Karmapolice, was written in collaboration with Manolis Mavropoulos and Syrus Shahidi.[23] Shot in French, it stars Shahidi as a policeman consumed by guilt who works in the Château Rouge neighbourhood of Paris when his neighbor is allegedly kidnapped by a slumlord. Alexis Manenti and Karidja Touré star in the supporting roles.[24] Paolini drew inspiration from French comics, including those by Charles Burns, Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Larcenet.[25] The film premiered in competition at the Festival Polar de Cognac in October 2023, where it earned Paolini his second Grand Prix.[26] It was theatrically released in France on 17 July 2024.[27] Critics praised Karmapolice,[28][29][30][31] and saw it as "the legacy of a certain New York underground cinema, from early Scorsese to the Safdie brothers, via Lynch's Blue Velvet".[32]Cineuropa wrote that Paolini confirmed his "singularity" as a director.[33]
In October 2024, Julien served as a jury member for the Festival Polar de Cognac.[34]
