Following the death of her father, beautiful young Fiorella Bianchi leaves Maratea and the Basilicata region to move to Mexico and marry a man she doesn’t know in the hope of finding medical help for her sister, Gianna, who has a heart condition. This is the opening gambit of “Muchacha Italiana viene a casarse”, an 180 episode Mexican telenovela produced by Televisa S.A. de C.V, to be broadcast in Mexico from October 20th.
At this particularly fortunate time for the Mexican audiovisual industry (Mexico is the guest of honor at this 30th edition of Mipcom), the Lucana Film Commission, Italy’s youngest film commission, has managed to bring the production to Maratea for one week, thanks to an agreement with the Italian embassy in Mexico.
Maratea is, in fact, the place where the whole story starts, and where all of the first episode was filmed at the end of August.
A wedding, a funeral, a departure: many locations around the city were used for the story, the old town center, the Church of the Annunciation, Piazza Vitolo, the hill of San Biagio with the statue of Christ the Redeemer, the port, the cemetery, Secca beach and the Grand Hotel Pianeta Maratea.
“Maratea will be featured in the closing credits of the telenovela, which they have told us will be sold to all South American countries,” says Paride Leporace, head of Film Commission. “It is a remake of the famous ’70s Mexican telenovela of the same name, and we are very proud to be hosting it , making available all the facilities and support mechanisms possible, including free hospitality and transport for the crew, while we are waiting to be able to extend our support fund to television productions as well. Three million Euros for boosting audiovisual production in our region and strengthening this newly born cinema district of Lucania, focusing on multiple languages and innovative technologies”.
To date, the Fund (#Bando alla crisi) has supported 19 productions in the Lucania district and 17 startups.
Another 21 works will shortly be given financing with additional funds. The Region is, in fact, looking for another 1,400.000 Euros.
