A new documentary, "Anatomy of a Portrait" ("Anatomia di un Ritratto"), will have its world premiere in the Venetian Nights strand of Venice Days on 4 September, telling the story of Fernanda Wittgens, Italy's first female museum director. Wittgens led Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera during and after the Second World War, and was also an anti-fascist activist who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Fascist Special Tribunal before being freed at the war's end. The film matters as an unconventional biopic that questions how much a life can truthfully be reconstructed, using the scarce surviving traces of its subject rather than dramatised recreation.

Directed by Francesco Clerici and Mattia Colombo, the documentary was made with only limited material on Wittgens available, chiefly her own letters, a handful of photographs and a five-second video clip. To compensate, the directors brought actress Sara Drago and art historian Giovanna Ginex, who has researched Wittgens for nearly 40 years, into a recording studio to reconstruct her voice, framing the film as an encounter between the two women rather than a straightforward reconstruction of Wittgens's life. The Italian-Swiss production comes from Marco Malfi Chindemi's Rossofilm alongside Luce Cinecittà and Lab 80 Film, co-produced with Rough Cat and RSI – Radiotelevisione Svizzera.