In Vermiglio, a village resides in the mountains where the Second World War looms from the distance. A soldier known as Pietro escaped the war and arrives at Vermiglio, disrupting the family of a local teacher, thus changing everyone’s lives forever. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize and is selected as Italy’s submission for the best International feature film at the 97th Academy Awards.
We had the pleasure of speaking with director Maura Delpero about her film. We talk about her winning the Grand Jury at Venice, how the film came from a dream, the production process and the impact her father had on making the film.
Zak Ahmed (THH): Congratulations on the film first of all. How does it feel to win the Grand Jury Prize?
Maura Delpero: Good! Of course it was amazing and beautiful. I think overall because I really estimated the jury. There were a lot of members of the jury I estimate their works, in a way it was recognition. I think they understood also my choices so yeah I was extremely happy.
Since then, your film has been premiering in other festivals across the world. How’s it feel to have your film shown in different places that are very rich in film culture?
Maura: It’s beautiful because it kind of confirms the universal potential of the film. Which is something I asked myself a lot,a because it’s a film that comes out of a very private feeling. And I asked myself whether it could be universal so it proves it and it also proves that it talks about human events. Capital events that can go through space and time and I really like when film can do this, that they can talk about a very specific place or time or situation, and same time they can be yours and the other people, and everyone through her or his personal filter can make it his or her own film.
The Production Process
You once mentioned that the film came to you from a dream. Could you talk about that?
Maura: Yeah it was my father coming towards me just after his death but the interesting thing is that it was not a father I knew. He was a little boy. He was related to a photo of him when he was 6 I knew very well. It was a very nice dream. He was very happy and he was playing in his childhood home that was in Vermiglio. The slope in the mountain where he was born so it drove me to those places in time and space. I felt that I wanted to go back to those places and understand who was my father and all those people in those years.
Since your background is as a documentary filmmaker, how did you approach a fictional film. What is the difference that really strikes a chord with you between them?
Maura: It was kind of a very natural passage. Very organic way because my documentaries were each time more narrative and also my relationship to the characters. People I was shooting was always more like director – actor. So in a way I thought, I needed to go to fiction but at the same time fiction is strongly influenced by documentary so I think they’re all very related to reality. How much reality makes me reflect and surprises me but the form of course it’s different. It allows me to write more and to direct more and maybe to have a easier, ethical relationship through the people. Because when you talk about people’s lives, there’s always a lot of ethic and moral questioning which can be also very tiring but I still love documentaries!
From a technical perspective, with the cinematography and the sound design. How did you help bring that to life to create your world?
Maura: I write in a very audio-visual way so a lot of things are already in the script. They strongly influence my work with the dop (director of photography) and sound designer but then the other thing, we do a lot of preparation because I normally don’t have a lot of time on set so I prefer to go there and we already know what we are going to do there. Of course then there are things that happen to us in that moment but in a way we go to know a place, to a place we share and we just want to grab the best moments within a study that we did.
Fond Memories
What do you look back most fondly on the film? How do you look back on the experience?
Maura: It was beautiful and terrific because production wise it was very hard. It had a lot of challenges, obstacles from nature, from children, from beasts, from everything. And I had a little baby in that moment. It was all very difficult but at the same time it’s such an incredible moment because in those weeks you’re giving life to things that you just imagine for a long time and they flourish so it’s always a very strong souvenir. But yeah I’m happy that we are all safe and the film is here.
After making this film and with the hype that’s going on now with all the festivals. What are you most proud of accomplishing with this film?
Maura: I’m proud of our film. I’m proud of the fact I could do the film I wanted to do. Of course with the limitations you always have but it’s the film, the soul is there.
Vermiglio releases in limited US theaters on December 25th.
