“It seems natural to set medieval, mystical stories in a land like Abruzzo: I would like to tell the story of Pope Celestino V… I am starting to collect material” director and producer Cinzia TH Torrini confides to Cinema & Video International.
Her successful television series, starting with “Elisa di Rivombrosa”, have regularly also made the fortune of the places where the stories are set.
The announcement of her possible “future in Abruzzo” is accompanied by a series of pieces of advice, requests, that Torrini gives the nascent Film Commission.

This is where the spell breaks: “The greatest appeal concerns the Funds and the reception”, she says with a very concrete approach, “you need to promote yourself in order to make yourself known, and that requires economic investment. Investment that, as demonstrated by many studies, has an effect on the territory, both in terms of expenditure by productions as well as through movie-tourism”.
Very useful advice, especially if the person giving it has demonstrated a particular talent for “making the actors really live in the places”.

Riccardo Milani, the director of successful movies and television series, has already shot 4 films in Abruzzo.
He is a native of Rome but has deep-rooted links with Abruzzo (“I used to go there as a child with my family, I grew up there; I owe my formation to this land”). Therefore, it is not a coincidence that he filmed his debut feature “Auguri professore” in Abruzzo.
In addition to the beauty of the landscapes Milani absorbed the culture of the people of Abruzzo, “founded on a sense of community, on a respect for people”, on the natural kindness and curiosity towards “foreigners”.
A culture that still survives in many countries and coexists with modernity, albeit juxtaposed, not integrated.
With “progress” Milani becomes aware of the risk of losing that authenticity, that purity which is the distinctive trait of the people in this land.
For this reason the director invests the Film Commission with great responsibility: “This organism can also play its part in realizing a “sustainable” development that does not renounce its identifying values”.

The perspective is completely different for line producer Enzo Sisti who, in 2019, filmed “The American” with George Clooney in Abruzzo.
“He has excellent memories of this land (“strong, true people”).
“Hollywood blockbusters” he says “are not looking for money but rather the right locations. Abruzzo can offer them, but it has to make them known. So it has to concentrate on the database, work on the search engines in order to come out on top when you type in “filming in Italy”, prepare the logistics in order to guarantee easy access to the places.”