IN OFFICIAL SELECTION 'DIFFERENT KIND OF LOVE' WRITTEN BY LUISA PETROLANI

BIO:

Luisa Pretolani is an award-winning writer, director, producer, and the founder of Pahni productions. During the course of her career she has worked extensively on fiction and non-fiction films. Her ground-breaking documentary Mandy’s Choice distributed by ITV international has been an international success.

Luisa’s sensitive and pragmatic touch in approaching dramatic and challenging issues like the death penalty in White Lies, children’s isolation in The Opening Night and immigration in NY/Ravenna one Way has been very well received on the international festival circuit including the Dublin film festival, Vienna film festival, and the AFI/Sony award where her work has been screened extensively. Her latest production In Search of the Messiah presented at the Chicago International Music & Movies Festival, and at Leeds International Film Festival is a documentary about the unseen schemes ruling the classical music world, and ancient unobtainable instruments like the Stradivari violins.

Luisa lived for more than a decade in New York where she produced a daily international radio show and freelanced as a producer/ director for Rai International and CBS. Over the past five years she has produced several "controversial" documentaries for al Jazeera international and she is presently producing for Discovery channel in London.

Among her works are her award-winning screenplay Bérbablù with acclaimed actors Ivano Marescotti (“King Arthur” and “Hannibal”) and Elena Bucci, and her features Tanabess and Tizca.

Logline:

Trapped in the worst kind of predicament, a father and son fall in love with the same girl. Will she choose looks and vitality over age and wisdom?

Synopsis:

Ezra Brooks, (Richard Dreyfuss) a distinguished but weary 60-year-old Jewish widower, is caught out in the pouring rain on a wet New York day. Ezra, wheelchair bound due to a broken leg, is rescued by a beautiful young Indian woman Lakshmi (Nazneen Contractor) 32. Although initially reluctant, Lakshmi accepts Ezra’s invitation to dry off and ride out the storm over a cup of coffee where she meets Ezra’s handsome eldest son, Ben, (Adam Brody) also 32. When the rain subsides, we see Lakshmi boarding her bus with father and son watching after her.

Hanna Goldsmith, 37 (Juliette Lewis) is Ezra’s eldest daughter and the family matriarch. Since losing their mother, she has been intent on meddling in everyone’s lives, despite the fact she can’t control her own. So when she bumps into Ben’s ‘perfect’ Jewish ex Camilla (Selma Blair), she sees it as the golden opportunity to rekindle their relationship. Meanwhile, Hanna’s own husband David Goldsmith is hiding a corrosive secret, which threatens to end her world.

Lakshmi is an asset manager with aspirations to become a publisher. Estranged from her father Pradip, she lives with her Aunt Pryianka (Shohreh Aghdashloo), an elegant writer in her 50’s, who has defied familial convention. Lakshmi returns to Ezra’s apartment the following day when she realizes she has mistakenly picked up one of Ben’s books. The pair discover they have much in common; both work in the financial sector but have creative pursuits - Ben is also a talented song-writer.When Lakshmi is invited to the Goldsmith company party the following night to watch Ben perform, the scene is fraught with tension. Ben is surprised to see that Hanna has invited Camilla and a hilarious dance sequence ensues where Ben seeks the assistance of his father to lose Camilla and dance with Lakshmi. meanwhile, an interfering Hanna, has secretly placed profiles of all the men in her family on a Jewish Singles website - even her youngest brother Ariel (Jackson Rathbone). Despite being only 19, Ariel has his head firmly screwed on and meditates daily. Though he’s unknowingly started dating a pregnant girl called Isabelle (Sophie Berenice), he will end up committing to her, deciding that their unconventional but fundamentally grounded love is strong enough.

Lakshmi and Ben’s relationship develops but one day she arrives at Ezra’s house a little too early to meet Ben. Ezra and her sit down with coffee and as he reviews Lakshmi’s critique of a novel, recognizing her potential as an editor, they begin to really notice each other. Without a solid father figure, Lakshmi starts to see beauty in Ezra; a very different kind of beauty to Ben’s. A beauty that comes with age and wisdom, not boyish good looks. When Ben arrives later, they all look at each other, three points of an awkward triangle. Meanwhile, Hanna who has grown more concerned at her family’s eccentric behavior, has invited a Rabbi over to mediate. The Rabbi turns out to be an attractive woman, Rabbi Mikaela Cohen (Jamie Lee curtis tbc) who develops a crush on Ezra much to Hanna’s delight. However, Lakshmi’s feelings for Ezra grow until she can no longer deny them. Our unlikely leading man, who was so resigned to living out the rest of his days alone, is faced with a choice...

Awaken to his potential passion and grab his last chance at love with Lakshmi? Or surrender to his age, guilt and society’s expectations of him? And finally how will the torn apart Goldsmith family ever forgive each other for their different kinds of love?