A story of love and courage, based on the life of Armida Miserere – one of Italy’s first female wardens, who ran some of the country’s harshest prisons and came up against the worst criminals, terrorists and mafiosos – Marco Simon Puccioni’s “Like the Wind” will make its world premiere out of competition at the Rome International Film Festival.
The cast includes Valeria Golino as Miserere, Filippo Timi, Francesco Scianna and Chiara Caselli. The film is produced by RAI Cinema, Interlfilm, Red Carpet, Revolver and Les Films du Present and is backed by the Ministry of Culture, Eurimages, MEDIA, the Regions of Tuscany and Lazio, the Sicilia Film Commission and the Marche Cinema Multimedia – Marche Film Commission.
“Like the Wind” was shot in Ancona’s Monteacuto prison, which is run by Santa Lebboroni, who knew Miserere and granted the production crew access to the locations. The Monteacuto institute is one of the various public and private companies of the Marche region that backed the film, along with the Penitentiary Police and a group of social cooperatives, to create a virtuous circle around the project, under the guidance of the Fondazione Marche Cinema Multimedia – Marche Film Commission.
Anna Olivucci, head of the Film Commission, is personally proud of the contributions of the cooperatives (Ama Aquilone, Cooss Marche, I.R.S. L’Aurora, L’Imprevisto, La Speranza, all coordinated by sociologist Marco Nocchi).
She says: “This film employed groups such as the social cooperatives with whom we’re now hoping to strike an agreement and launch a small, dedicated fund that the cooperatives would offer to those films using their human resources and services”.
The professionals from the region that were hired for the film include four young people from the cooperatives, an assistant set designer, two runners, 10 extras, an assistant electrician, an assistant grip, a set photographer and a backstage cameraman.
“We’re very proud of the fact that, despite their difficult financial situations, these cooperatives are choosing to invest in themselves through cinema. That’s no small thing as far as I’m concerned”, concludes Olivucci.
The film’s other locations in the Marche were the Conero Reserve and the Gola del Furlo State Natural Reserve.
The film was also shot in Tuscany (Pianosa and Grosseto), Campania (Naples, Torre del Greco) and the Pompei Archeological Areas.
HEADING TO ROME 2/JAZZY NAPLES
Screening in competition at the Rome Film Festival, Guido Lombardi’s “Take Five” centers on five uncommon characters who pull off a million-dollar bank heist in Naples. Besides its idiomatic meaning, here “Take Five” also refers to the jazz piece recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1959, which became renowned above all of its unorthodox 5/4 beat.
The actions of the five protagonists, in a city as jazzy as Naples, are like five musical “solos” in a mutual game of deadly destruction.
The film’s characters share the same names (and in some cases, the same experiences) with the actors, one of whom, Gaetano Di Vaio, also produced the film through Figli del Bronx, with Gianluca Curti (Minerva Pictures), RAI Cinema and Dario Formisano (Eskimo).
The film’s Neapolitan locations include the former Uffici Anagrafe in Piazza Dante, the Bourbon Tunnel, several underground sections of the city’s ARIN aqueduct, the Galleria Principe Di Napoli and the Chamber of Commerce in Piazza Bovio. The Caveau was reconstructed at the piazza Telematica in Scampia.
The Rome Film Festival is presenting another Naples-set film, out of competition: “Song’e Napule”, directed by the Manetti Bros and produced by Luciano, Lea and Dania Martino for Devon Cinematografica in partnership with RAI Cinema.
HEADING TO ROME 3/ A TUSCAN DOC
Giovanni Donfrancesco’s documentary “The Stone River”, shot in the Carrara quarries, is in competition in the Rome Film Festival sidebar Prospettive Doc Italia. Produced by Altara Films, Les Films du Poisson, RAI Cinema and Image Plus Epinal, it also received backing from the Tuscany Region and the CNC – Centre National de la Cinématographie.
Shot in Carrara and Vermont, the film is like a cinematic “Spoon RiverAnthology”,of the stone workers who emigrated from Carrara and all throughout Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, to Barre, Vermont, where the world’s largest granite quarries were being opened.
