De l’envoyée spéciale de NHM Alice Kanterian

Alice: Your short evokes in me memories. I thought while watching it at Orhan Pamuks "Museum of the innocence". This it is the title of a novel he wrote about Kemal, an upper-class man from Istanbul in the 1960s and 70s. Kemal develops an obsessive love with his young cousin Füsun. His pursuit takes him to Füsun’s family home in Çukurcuma, to a building which becomes the fictional, and later the physical museum. Orhan Pamuk has bought the building afer writig the novel, and has displayed in it objects that are evoking stories and memories of Füsun like her dress or her driver’s license or memories of the Istanbul of the 1970s

Is this also the concept of your short?

Savino: I don't know the novel by Orhan Pamuk. For our history the place is important too and the objects represent the past, the memories, the roots of a love. Even for our protagonist the house becomes a museum. "The man" becomes an object of the memory. And we want to tell you how to leave this museum. There are several objects (the answering machine, the scooter) helping the protagonist find himself but there is one in particular that has the power to remind him and me where we come from and who we can choose to be: the super 8 movie, retained by my family for forty years.

Alice: How did you come up with the idea?

Savino: There was a period of my life when I was afraid of losing the person I loved. When you're in love, you don't care about yourself anymore. You just want to make the other person happy. You forget about yourself. because making your love happy makes you happy. So I thought: what if the person you love abandoned you? I replied: I could lose myself. In myself. In memory of her. I may no longer exist.

Alice: The title is enigmatic, the viewer does not know why the man is gone, what happened to him, maybe he even died, was this your Intention?

Savino: I wanted the viewer to have no doubts until the end. I wanted the audience to evaluate well the love between the two lovers and to decide for themselves what happened to him. Furthermore, I wanted the audience to realize the extent of their love. Some have seen it as a simple abandonment between two boyfriends where one is left by the other and there are those who saw a more painful detachment. Like a death.

Alice: Your short has been co-financed by the Turin Film Comission, how difficult was it to get the funds?

Savino: It took a lot of work. Me and Viren participated with our production company "Compagnia GenoveseBeltramo" at the Short Film Fund winning it. This, together with the support of the city of Settimo Torinese, has allowed us to count on the involvement of top quality film professionals. And finally we must also thank our co-producers Vittorio Chesi and Alessandra Altissimo. Without their look, support, care and love we would never have been able to achieve it in a short time.

Alice: We have met in El Gouna International Film Festival which took place 19-27.09. What are your impressions of the GFF? And how did you get there, did you send your short to the GFF, it's only the third edition, how did you find out about the festival?

Savino: The festival was a surprise for us. We didn't know what to expect so when we arrived we were very excited to see interest in our work.

We were positively surprised by the similarities rather than by the differences between the West and the Middle East.

I didn't know GFF well. Our distribution company "Ligths on" applied our film to the competition. And it was selected. We were very proud to be part of the competing shorts, because they were all very beautiful.

Alice: Roberto Stabile and his team from ANICA (ITALIAN FILM AUDIOVISUAL AND MULTIMEDIA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION) was promoting the co-productions in El Gouna for the first time. Do you personal see a chance, will you collaborate with producers from Egypt or even the MENA region in the future?

Savino: Italy has always promoted and invited production companies to find co-productions with other countries. I find that the opening of the ANICA is the natural consequence of this cultural policy that is present in our DNA. There are possibilities for collaboration. All you need is the right idea, the right people to engage and a bit of luck.

Alice: How have you enjoy the cosmopolitan ambience at the hub at the TU Berlin, any good contacts? Invited were very prestigious directors, producers, festival programers or directors from major film Festivals like TIFF and Berlin Film Festival. Did you make good connections?

Savino: I loved the meetings at the TU Berlin very much. I met mainly Egyptian students who had seen our work and Middle Eastern filmmakers with whom we had the opportunity to exchange our points of view on the world of cinema. It was very nice to discover the love they feel for Italian authors like Sorrentino, Garrone, Tornatore.

I found the GFF an amazing festival. We have enriched our adress book with new contacts and beautiful people. Surely all this will lead to something important in our cinema history.

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