Matteo Tonarelli, Promoting Cinema

An young man looking very upset walks out the door, followed by another man carrying an empty cage; then, a young man who is much more relaxed walks out another door, explaining that he was able to quit thanks to Italian Law 413/93. The law regulates researchers' and students' conscientious objection to vivisection and the scene is from an Italian Public Service Announcement, commissioned by the Hans Reusch Foundation, airing on the RAI networks at the moment.

The relaxed-looking researcher is Matteo Tonarelli, a student in his first year of the Master of Science in Economics and Management of Public Administration and International Institutions.

While a student at secondary school with a scientific emphasis, Tonarelli founded the theater company Kronoteatro in Albenga, Italy. He also filmed a feature-length film that took him almost four years, he has made a short film, three documentaries and appeared as an extra in two international cinema productions. And yet he still stands out in his studies, and was admitted to the prestigious Collegio di Milano. He's keeping both options open for his future.

In action as a director...	...and as an actor

"I've always been very passionate about cinema and acting," he says, "and founding the theater company was a decisive moment for me. It started with classmates but grew with the supervision of Maurizio Sgotti, artistic director of the Teatro di Voltri, who believed in us and involved us in his projects. For the rest of the company, it became an almost full-time commitment, while I'm starting to have some problems fitting it into my study commitments in Milan." If asked to name a movie that inspired him to try out a career in cinema, Tonarelli names Forrest Gump. "It tells the story of a trip full of adventure and I've always thought that the working as a director or an actor could, in some way, let me live through adventures just as interesting."

Unaware that non-professional film contests accept only short films and not feature-length movies, at the age of 14 Tonarelli started a noir psychological adventure, Itinere, with friends as actors. "I taught myself how to write a script and edit a movie, following some advice from a relative that had attended the Boston Film School. Then, to improve my skills, I worked in a television production studio. Four years later, when I thought I had finished everything, I had to re-shoot the first scenes because we had all grown up so much that we seemed like different people."

Even though it was never distributed, the movie was shown at his school and the principal asked him to make a documentary for the 2004 International Day of Non-Violence, organized by UNESCO. A few other documentaries were also made, along with a short movie, Ad occhi chiusi, presented at a film festival.

When he moved to Milan to go to university (first studying International Relations at Cattolica, then the MSc at Bocconi) Tonarelli never gave up his passion for film and enrolled in Milan's Public Film School, attending evening classes. This gave him the opportunity to work as an extra in London in the important production of Brick Lane by Sarah Gavron and, in Italy, in Inkheart, a large international mega-production that did not meet with much success, filmed in Liguria. "It's a truly interesting experience to work as an extra in several different scenes and getting the opportunity to see how a movie is really made," he explains.

He was co-lead in two episodes of TransEurope, an All Music documentary/drama, which compares students of different nationalities, and also made it through three casting steps for the public service announcement commercial. In the meantime, he was admitted to a Double Degree program and next year will attend the MBA in International Organizations at HEC in Geneva. He continues to have a number of opportunities open for his future.