For Vermiglio director Maura DelPiero, winning the Silver Lion from the jury at the Venice Film Festival is a dream born from a dream.
Set at the end of World War II in an Alpine village, the arrival of a soldier disrupts the dynamics between three sisters. “Vermiglio” is the follow-up to “Maternal,” which was set in an Argentine asylum for teenage mothers run by nuns and was a huge hit on the festival circuit.
Venice jury president Isabelle Huppert praised “Vermiglio” as a war story in which you never see war. “It’s like you have a great subject off-screen, but you only see what’s happening through a little eye, through the latch of the door,” she told a news conference.
After its Venice debut, DelPiero's stunning second work moves to Toronto and has already been selected at a host of other festivals around the world.
Delpero spoke to diverse In Venice, a few days before Vermiglio won the Silver Lion, she spoke of her deep personal connection to the film.
How to grow Vermiglio?
It's the most personal film I've ever made. It comes from the grief of my father's death, which was a sad moment. But the film comes from a very happy event: a dream. Shortly after he died, my father came to visit me in a dream in which he was a little boy. He appeared as in a picture I know of him, toothless, smiling. And he was in his childhood home in the mountains. So I started writing, but first I needed to write to get over this. [grief]This was a personal work. And it was nice, because for the first time I was writing about him and his brothers when they were children. Of course I was writing about them, because I always saw them as adults and grown-ups when I was a child. It was an interesting reversal of roles. While I was writing, I had so many images in my head, so at one point I said, “Okay, maybe this could be a film.” But at first, I wasn’t sure if it could be a universal film either. Then I realized that it could be because it’s about critical life events. It’s about a point in time when you have to survive in a war; when you have to be able to eat and feed your children, and try to get them to study and then get through this period of war. And then get through the death of children, so everything is urgent. That makes it transcend our borders. [present] Place and time.
Aside from the story, what is striking about this film is how it immerses the viewer in the rural mountain world of that period. Tell me about your immersion process..
It's a method I follow. I've done documentaries and I've done feature films. It's part of my creative process. To write, I go to where I live. [where the film is set] And I do a lot of things that can seem over the top sometimes. For example, I slept in the bed that my grandmother had 10 children in — and it still exists — in the winter, to keep myself cool. I also went to places like barns and bars, and men’s bars. It’s funny because I was pregnant and they offered me a lot of wine and I couldn’t take it. But it was interesting. It helped me write and prepare and do the initial auditions. I cast every face that’s in the film. Even the extras. And they’re all people who would never come to the audition call. It’s beautiful because some of them are really stuck in time. It’s not just about how you look and how you move in space. It’s also about how you talk. Using the dialect is so important to this film.
In this regard, how do you work with your representatives? Do you hold workshops?
First and foremost, I love working with actors. I love working with them before we start shooting. The casting process is very important, and while I’m casting, I also do rehearsals. I spend a lot of time on it, not just with non-professionals, but also with famous actors. In this case, I asked an actress to help me start a family. We had breakfast together, played games, and worked on physical closeness. In one case, I walked onto the set and thought, “How can I create the surprise and magic that kids feel when they hear Vivaldi’s music at school?” So before the camera rolled, I asked them to identify the sounds that characterize each season. [in Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”].
I hear that after Toronto, there are several other festivals scheduled. Talk to me about the film's future journey.
I don’t know what to reveal, but I know that we will be in about twenty festivals around the world. I will try to travel as much as possible, even though I have a very young child. I will do my best because I love meeting the audience. I am happy that the response I am getting confirms that the film is universal. It is just a small village where my father lives that speaks to people and evokes emotions. I have started to see emotions in people’s eyes, and that is really magical.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Courtesy of Cindy Dora, Venice Film Festival
