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This article offers a historical perspective on co-productions of high-end television drama in Germany. It argues that such co-productions have seen three distinct phases that although overlapping, are described by industry insiders and critics as distinct periods where one form of co-production is dominant at a particular time but then becomes residual as other forms take over. These three forms are, first, public broadcaster-led co-productions, second, 'Europudding' co-productions, and finally, distinctive co-productions in TVIV. This article shows that these phases are connected to stylistic as well as industrial changes, which do not always overlap with the description of industry insiders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Interventions focused on cognitive function in neurodivergent children typically focus on single functions, e.g. working memory training. They are often focused on ‘deficit’ models and lack an emphasis on understanding areas of individual strengths and difficulties as a prerequisite to appropriate support. The multidimensional nature and phenotypic variability of cognitive profiles in these children indicate a need for a multicomponent-tailored intervention programme focused on understanding and supporting an individual child’s cognitive functioning. Aims The ‘EPIC’ intervention (Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People) is focused on improving cognition, learning and behaviour in neurodivergent children such as those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or who are autistic. Building on our previous co-production work, this study aimed to use a participatory methods approach to develop EPIC practices and materials in relation to our key principles which include psychoeducation, multicomponent, individualised approach, strengths and difficulties profiling and pairing of a child’s individual strengths and difficulties with internal and external strategies. We also set out to assess the feasibility and acceptability of EPIC, and pilot this novel tool-kit intervention with neurodivergent children and their parents and teachers. Methods The intervention practices, materials and strategies of EPIC were co-produced with neurodivergent children, their parents, teachers and clinicians taking a strengths and difficulties approach. Identification of psychoeducation activities and strategy practices (e.g. mind-maps, chunking), testing of feasibility and collection of pilot data were conducted over a bi-weekly 8-week programme. Eleven neurodivergent children aged 7 to 12 completed the 16-session individualised programme. Acceptability and feasibility were ascertained via qualitative reports elicited within child and teacher interviews and child ratings of enjoyment. Pilot evaluation data was collected pre- and post-intervention participation, and across cognitive assessments (CANTAB, BRIEF), educational attainment (WIAT) and parent and teacher questionnaires measuring clinical symptoms and behaviour (Conners, AQ, SDQ, self-perception). Data was compared with a matched neurodivergent treatment-as-usual control group (N = 9). Results The co-produced EPIC intervention was both feasible to deliver and acceptable to children, parents and their teachers. Pilot data identified that the 8-week intervention improved cognition (short-term and working memory) and literacy (receptive vocabulary, oral word fluency, listening comprehension). Improvements in the intervention group were also found for parent-reported child behavioural difficulties and aggression, and teacher-reported scholastic competence. Effect sizes generated (Cohen’s d) ranged from 0.65 to 2.83. Parents reported continuing to use EPIC strategies when interviewed over a year after participating in the programme. Conclusion The current study met our objectives fully. ‘EPIC’ (Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People) is feasible in home and school contexts and improves a range of aspects of cognition, learning and behaviour in neurodivergent children. Our findings show EPIC is suitable to be assessed within a full-scale trial.

Background: Interventions focused on cognitive function in neurodivergent children typically focus on single functions, e.g. working memory training. They are often focused on 'deficit' models and lack an emphasis on understanding areas of individual strengths and difficulties as a prerequisite to appropriate support. The multidimensional nature and phenotypic variability of cognitive profiles in these children indicate a need for a multicomponent-tailored intervention programme focused on understanding and supporting an individual child's cognitive functioning. Aims: The 'EPIC' intervention (Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People) is focused on improving cognition, learning and behaviour in neurodivergent children such as those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or who are autistic. Building on our previous co-production work, this study aimed to use a participatory methods approach to develop EPIC practices and materials in relation to our key principles which include psychoeducation, multicomponent, individualised approach, strengths and difficulties profiling and pairing of a child's individual strengths and difficulties with internal and external strategies. We also set out to assess the feasibility and acceptability of EPIC, and pilot this novel tool-kit intervention with neurodivergent children and their parents and teachers. Methods: The intervention practices, materials and strategies of EPIC were co-produced with neurodivergent children, their parents, teachers and clinicians taking a strengths and difficulties approach. Identification of psychoeducation activities and strategy practices (e.g. mind-maps, chunking), testing of feasibility and collection of pilot data were conducted over a bi-weekly 8-week programme. Eleven neurodivergent children aged 7 to 12 completed the 16-session individualised programme. Acceptability and feasibility were ascertained via qualitative reports elicited within child and teacher interviews and child ratings of enjoyment. Pilot evaluation data was collected pre- and post-intervention participation, and across cognitive assessments (CANTAB, BRIEF), educational attainment (WIAT) and parent and teacher questionnaires measuring clinical symptoms and behaviour (Conners, AQ, SDQ, self-perception). Data was compared with a matched neurodivergent treatment-as-usual control group (N = 9). Results: The co-produced EPIC intervention was both feasible to deliver and acceptable to children, parents and their teachers. Pilot data identified that the 8-week intervention improved cognition (short-term and working memory) and literacy (receptive vocabulary, oral word fluency, listening comprehension). Improvements in the intervention group were also found for parent-reported child behavioural difficulties and aggression, and teacher-reported scholastic competence. Effect sizes generated (Cohen's d) ranged from 0.65 to 2.83. Parents reported continuing to use EPIC strategies when interviewed over a year after participating in the programme. Conclusion: The current study met our objectives fully. 'EPIC' (Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People) is feasible in home and school contexts and improves a range of aspects of cognition, learning and behaviour in neurodivergent children. Our findings show EPIC is suitable to be assessed within a full-scale trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Hong Kong filmmakers, co-productions with mainland China are transborder assemblages characterized by increasing territorialization and coding that impart to them a palpable crisis of losing locality. However, this crisis does not necessarily mean the loss of a critical perspective. Johnnie To's three co-produced action films demonstrate his struggles to evade or even take advantage of the disadvantageous status of dislocality and work under restricted creative conditions to carve out a space for critical expressions. Drug War not only brings to the screen the arbitrary nature of state sovereignty by telling the story of a cross-border crime—one in which narrative doubling plays a key role—but also offers reflections on Chinese urbanization in its visual composition, which takes the style of a kind of suburban realism. Three and Chasing Dream represent To's latest efforts to develop an aesthetics of the studio defined by a tendency toward abstraction such that he uses his dislocality as a basis for a critical perspective on Hong Kong society and, especially, contemporary Chinese neoliberalism. Intertextual allusions, whether large-scale plot structures and visual styles or small-scale features of characterization and dialogue, are pervasive in To's co-productions. These allusions can and should, I argue, be drawn into the new context of To's transborder assemblages for a better understanding of his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the definition and characteristics of pan-Asian film authorship and aesthetics advocated by the late Wouter Barendrecht, film producer of Fortissimo Film Sales, as employed to promote the Thai film auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Through collaboration with East Asian film industries, such as the ones in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea during the period of intensified pan-Asian co-production at the turn of the century, Pen-ek was branded a pan-Asian auteur for the global film market on account of his pan-Asian identity, rather than his association with the New Thai Cinema label. Barendrecht employed two strategies – the auteur as brand, and the region as brand – to construct the image of this new pan-Asian author. By considering these branding strategies, it can be argued – following Nissim Otmazgin and Eyal Ben-Ari – that a cultural imbalance between East Asia and Southeast Asia still persists: East Asia as cultural producer and Southeast Asia as market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Imagofagia is the property of Imagofagia - AsAECA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the early twenty-first century, scholars began examining Mexican films as part of a large network of exchanges and influences. While Hester Baer and Bryan Long analysed Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mama también (2001) as a prime example of transnational Mexican cinema, Laura Isabel Serna explored the relationship between Mexican and American cinemas in the early twentieth century and Nancy Membrez examined Macario (1960). With the creation of the journal Transnational Cinemas in 2010, the study of cinema as an endeavour that involved multiple countries/regions gained further ground. For instance, in her article in a special issue dedicated to Transnational Latin American Cinemas, Jean Anne Lauer focused on the support for Mexican cinema in national and international contexts.

This article examines the contribution of streaming platforms in providing financial investment – in the form of co-productions, commissions and acquisitions of audio-visual content – as well as capital returns to local audio-visual producers. It will focus on the North American region, particularly on Mexico and Canada, as gravitating around stronger US audio-visual companies. Studies of traditional audio-visual windows in the countries studied have pointed out the undercapitalization of independent content producers due to financial structures and capital return models that are disadvantageous to them. This article questions: what is streaming's contribution, as a new commercialization window, to the capitalization of local independent producers? The research conducted a qualitative study of interviews with film producers and distributors as well as an industrial analysis based on previous studies, media and business reports. The research has found that streaming tends to provide: (1) equal or slightly less returns than what the DVD window used to offer; and (2) equal or more generous figures than those delivered by TV and cinema exhibition windows. Furthermore, streaming has promoted a burgeoning production activity – adding to the production from traditional players (film and TV). These are benefits that should not be overlooked. However, streaming has not altered independent producers' disadvantageous position: (1) revenue shares are still relatively small; (2) licences represent small percentages of what content costs to make; (3) commissioning and co-production budgets are fairly close to production costs; and (4) the boom of platforms' original production is actually a battle among large corporations to control intellectual property (IP). All the above keep hindering the financial capacity of local independent producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-lasting relationship of the East German production company DEFA with Eastern European cinemas is documented by the great number of co-productions undertaken over the years of its existence. In a canon of DEFA films shot on location in Bulgaria, the 'Chile films' appear as interesting example of cultural hybridity and transnational filmmaking, which have yet to receive scholarly attention. The features Der Übergang/The Passage (1978), Die Spur des Vermißten/Trace of the Disappeared (1980) and Blonder Tango/Blond Tango (1985), presenting East German views about human rights violations that occurred in Chile during the Pinochet regime, were made with Bulgarian, German and Chilean casts and crews. This paper examines the Eastern European physiognomies in these films and their meaning as conflation between East and South in the Cold War dynamics of the late 1970s to mid-1980s. While the films propagate notions of Third World solidarity and fascist denunciation in narrative terms, Eastern European natural and urban landscapes produce feelings of displacement and yearning for an intact place remote from East German reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1998, the Czech National Film Archive (Národní filmový archive/NFA) classified sixty-seven feature-length fiction films produced between 1930 and 1945 as generic melodramas in their volumes of Czech Feature Film (Český hraný film). This essay considers how this retrospective genre classification offers entry into understanding melodrama's aesthetic and cultural operations in Czech cinema. The focus is less on how the NFA defined the genre, than how these volumes, in bringing melodrama into critical view, reveal important assumptions about its cultural and historical affiliations with foreign co-productions. Starting by outlining some of the problems presented by the volumes of Czech Feature Film, this essay highlights some key questions that emerge in studying the complicated relationship between Czech and German popular film genres. In particular, it focuses on melodrama's relationship to films made during the Nazi occupation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, when films were necessarily co-produced with the Nazified film industry. Through a close reading and reception study of Saturday (Sobota, Václav Wasserman, 1945) this essay considers how the perception of melodrama films as light entertainment during the Nazi occupation provided yet another opportunity for these films on Czechoslovak state television during the post-1968 period of normalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several Indian filmmakers and production houses making 'alternative' and 'independent films' have sought to develop co-production deals with European film funds, international film festivals, film markets and sales agents. Their bid is to build a profile with art house and 'specialty cinema' audiences in Europe, Asia and the USA, while also seeking to impact the Indian domestic market. This article analyses the assembling of such productions, and their aesthetic form, including a reflection on charges that their adaptation to international distribution requires a conformity to what is acceptable and intelligible to 'international audiences'. It also explores how alternative films oriented to international art cinema affect the understanding of what constitutes 'national cinemas'. The article explores these themes through two films, Qissa (2013) and The Lunchbox (2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Imagofagia is the property of Imagofagia - AsAECA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discussing films' nationality raises two questions. The first relates to the identity and culture films are supposed to transmit. The second relates to the duality of the sector, which is divided into art / art-house films, defined as "national", and into the industry / blockbuster films, defined as American productions. European institutions facilitate co-productions and the circulation of films. Co-productions have increased in the past decades, and one may wonder how they affect the "film nationality". This issue is particularly important to address at a time when international institutions praise diversity and the specificities of nations in a global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its creation in 2008, the Film and Audiovisual Institute of Uruguay (ICAU) has developed strategies to support, fund and exhibit Uruguayan film productions. These policies have paid particular attention to private and public partners and co-production agreements with both Latin American and European countries. To a huge extent, the contemporary Uruguayan film industry is viable thanks to globalization and the larger markets of Argentina and Brazil. Using data from the annual reports of the ICAU, interviews and media clippings, in this article I trace the development of three co-produced films: Norberto apenas tarde (Norberto's Deadline) (Hendler, 2010), Solo (Rocamora, 2013) and Mr. Kaplan (Brechner, 2014) to show the process and impact of these co-productions and their consumption in Uruguay and the other countries that participated in their financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renaissance (2006) and Metropia (2009) are two illustrative examples of European cyberpunk cinema of the 2000s. This article will consider the films as representative of contemporary trends in European popular filmmaking. As digital animations aimed at adult audiences and co-produced with other European countries, they epitomise a type of European film. In addition, they share a number of narrative premises. Set in the near future, Renaissance and Metropia depict a dystopian Europe. Recycling motifs from non-European science fiction classics, they share similar concerns with interconnectivity, surveillance, immigration, class, the representation of women, as well as the obsession with beauty and physical perfection. This article will analyse their themes and aesthetics in order to explore how European popular cinema promotes a certain idea of European cultural identity within the limits of an industry whose products are targeted at a global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the development of Colombian cinema in the twenty-first century, paying particular attention to the co-productions between Colombia and European countries in the last sixteen years. The analysis of these co-productions shows the importance of foreign funds in the production of Colombian films, particularly in the wake of the approval of Law 814 that aimed to foster Colombian film production. The article focuses on four different types of Colombian-European co-productions: those made with support from Ibermedia, France, Spain and other European countries, and the Colombian producers and directors who were instrumental in their making. Colombian-European co-productions contributed in strengthening Colombian cinema, particularly supporting the uninterrupted shooting of films. Without sacrificing authenticity in plots nor reference to national topics, Colombian-European co-productions have enjoyed access to larger audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the extent to which Greek cinema has engaged with European co-productions and identifies the ways in which these have changed its production culture, as well as, indirectly, its form, content and mode of address. While mainly focusing on the 2010s, it also offers a historical account of co-production practices in Greece, especially since the establishment of Eurimages in 1989. It argues that the intensification of co-production activity that has become more evident in the last few years has been the result of a number of factors, including the continuing impact of European institutional frameworks, the reduction of national funds towards cinema, the emergence of a number of new producers trained in building co-productions and the critical success of a number of Greek films in prestigious festivals. The analysis draws on film studies, media industry and film policy studies as it aims to reveal the ways in which both Europe-wide and localised social, financial and professional conditions have affected the production culture in Greece, especially with regard to art/quality cinema, leading to the increased 'Europeanisation'of Greek cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the shifting image of the Polish capital in a series of European feature films made over the past 25 years (all of them realised with significant Polish or East European involvement), with particular attention to the way in which these co-productions negotiate and imagine Warsaw's status as a ‘European’ city. In contrast to pictures from the 1980s – with their focus on stories of East-West defection and portrayals of Warsaw as an undesirable Eastern Bloc setting – productions from the mid- and late 1990s bring into view journeys to the Polish capital (rather than away from it) and shift attention to the city's location in between two historic centres of power (Western Europe and the Soviet Union). Post-communist Warsaw then becomes the ideal (masculine) site to settle Cold War scores and ‘get even’ with the East and the West alike. The post-accession period, in turn, marks a shift towards a politics of location characterised by multilateral cooperation within the ‘New Europe’. A highly intriguing example of both diegetic and institutional Europeanisation is provided by the Scandinavian-Polish co-productionThe Woman That Dreamed About a Man(2010), which offers a reflexive and intertextual take on Warsaw as a desirable shooting location. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cuban cinema has undergone a resurgence over the past decade, often relying on different foreign sources of funding, particularly transnational co-production agreements. As global audience appeal becomes a critical factor in national cinema, incorporating global media resources entails forms of resistance that need not be guided by a refusal to engage with hegemonic forces. Instead, audio-visual production strives to acknowledge and mobilize the elasticity of social, ideological and geopolitical borders by experimenting with national and global criteria. This article explores this media environment through Alejandro Brugués's film Juan de los muertos/Juan of the Dead (2011). The film mediates the complex material and ideological transformations in Cuba over the past two decades and provides a fertile ground for exploring the circulation of anxieties around global consumption. This article examines how Juan of the Dead contributes towards the continued reformulation of both Cuban and genre cinemas while also reproducing pervasive discourses around race, gender and sexuality in Cuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remembrance highlights the possibilities of a modest commercial cinema that prioritizes craftsmanship and focus. This has special importance in Canadian and Quebec cinema, and Remembrance's afterlife as the three-season Canadian TV show X-Company raises important questions about the flourishing of small national cinemas in a globalized age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In work the estimation of the basic sources of hydrocarbonaceous raw materials is made. The basic productions of the chemical industry using as raw materials synthesis gas, received by natural gas conversion are listed. Productions which can be aggregated in joint flow diagrammes are shown. Classification of co-productions of the chemical industry is offered.

After European audiences had first contact with anime in the late 1970s, animated co-productions between domestic producers and Japanese studios emerged in the early 1980s, playing a lead role in standardizing anime aesthetics and hence contributing to the broader development of anime in Spain and other major European markets. These pioneering co-productions fostered the arrival of Japanese studios to the European broadcasting scene. However, its real impact on the popularization of anime is subject to debate. Appealing to a European audience, these series lacked some of the most recognizable features associated with anime as a larger medium. Nonetheless, in some of these animated productions there was an underlying animesque flair in the shape of conventionalized elements, character design, facial expressions, rhythm, camera action and tropes. Neither entirely domestic nor fully Japanese, these hybrid productions set up a ‘bridge’ between European and American animated visual language and anime mainstream features, thereby shaping the collective idea of what anime is for the first generation of viewers in Spain and Europe.

Renaissance (2006) and Metropia (2009) are two illustrative examples of European cyberpunk cinema of the 2000s. This article will consider the films as representative of contemporary trends in European popular filmmaking. As digital animations aimed at adult audiences and co-produced with other European countries, they epitomise a type of European film. In addition, they share a number of narrative premises. Set in the near future, Renaissance and Metropia depict a dystopian Europe. Recycling motifs from non-European science fiction classics, they share similar concerns with interconnectivity, surveillance, immigration, class, the representation of women, as well as the obsession with beauty and physical perfection. This article will analyse their themes and aesthetics in order to explore how European popular cinema promotes a certain idea of European cultural identity within the limits of an industry whose products are targeted at a global market.

This article seeks to provide a contribution to the contemporary writing on transnational cinema. By acknowledging the prolific literature that characterizes transnational cinema through specific categories of cultural and societal mobilization, and the writing on crossover cinema, this work aims to enter into a dialogue with the respective authors and propose a less structured approach to transnational mobilization. To study such mobilizations and its complex forms, co-production ventures were used as case studies to highlight the efforts of early international joint endeavours, and more recently, those of outsourcing agencies, as being nodes for changing forms of international collaborations. By focusing on Italian Indian co-produced films, this work situates co-production studies within the literature on transnational cinema, and unsettles fixed cinematic categories in favor of a more mobile and fluid paradigm. Hence, the term Liminal cinema is proposed to critically assess and emphasize the dynamics of the complex phenomenon of transnational cinema-in-motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on how Chinese media industries have sought to expand into new territories, identifying several mechanisms by which Chinese cultural and media products are traded and consumed: namely finished content, co-productions, formats and online platforms. The article also considers the value of overseas location shooting for domestic programmes and acquisition of international media assets. The key idea that is discussed in regards to China's outward-bound trade mission is know-how. In respect to media production, producers tend to opt for risk avoidance rather than creative exploration. Consequently, Chinese producers, investors and practitioners are deficient in knowledge of international markets and audience perceptions because the government has chosen to intervene, select and guide Chinese products. The article suggests this is gradually changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the national and transnational dimensions of the representation of memory in two contemporary Uruguayan films, Esteban Schroeder’sMatar a todos(Kill Them All, 2007) and Ana Diez’sPaisito(Small Country, 2008). These films revisit the traumas and after-effects of the Southern Cone dictatorships that came to power in the early and mid-1970s. As co-productions,Matar a todosandPaisitorely on the representation of prosthetic memories, but the artificial nature of these memories may be problematic for different audiences. Thus, this article not only considers these films’ depiction of a traumatic past, but also their circulation in and beyond Uruguay and the challenge of engaging transnational audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Andrea Cicini, the China representative of ANICA ( Italian Cinema Industry Association), is presented. Topics discussed include the cinematographic co-production agreement signed between China and Italy, how the agreement will create opportunity for China and Italy for collaborating in the development and shooting of Chinese films in Italy, and the strategies that can be used for better introducing Italian cinema in China.

Copyright of China Media Report Overseas is the property of Edmondson Intercultural Enterprises and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Famous for being the first foreign feature film that obtained permission to shoot in the Forbidden City, The Last Emperor (1987) is also one of the most ambitious and expensive independent productions of its time, awarded four Golden Globes and nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In addition, The Last Emperor can be considered as one of the first attempts of cinematic collaboration between West and East, in a period of cultural and economic transformations witnessed by China. This article aims to offer an overview of the production history of The Last Emperor, focusing on the co-production collaborations and the outcomes of a western auteur's gaze on Chinese history. Questions of Orientalism, travel narrative and critical reception are taken into account in order to engage with the transnational implications of Bertolucci's film and the western fascination with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent bilateral film co-production agreement between Italy and the People's Republic of China (PRC), ratified in September 2012 by the Italian Parliament, will hopefully bring fruitful cooperations between these two national film and television industries. However, Chinese and Italian film co-productions are not an unprecedented phenomenon. The first co-production between these two film industries actually happened in 1982, when mini-series Marco Polo was produced by Italian television network RAI along with Chinese Company Cinematic Co-Production (CCCC). The aim of this article is to examine the production history of Marco Polo and its complex transnational dimension, through the analysis of issues previously highlighted by theoretical works about the crisis of national cinema and of issues of identity in European co-productions. Moreover, the article will analyze RAI's production policy of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a watershed era that marks a move from the production of works of international film-makers of modern cinema, to more spectacular and marketable productions for the new global television market. Finally, I will discuss Marco Polo's relationship with the Italian political film, an important production trend in 1970s Italian cinema, to which director Giuliano Montaldo contributed with at least three of his films. I will suggest that the Italian political film was extremely apt at narrating a story focused on intercultural communication, and that Montaldo had been hired by RAI because of his experience in this genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]