La primavera della mia vita
2020, a few days after Sanremo, I received a call from Antonio and Lorenzo. They told me, "we want to make a film, an on-the-road movie set in Sicily, write us a few-page treatment."
But let's start from the beginning. I began collaborating with Lorenzo back in 2013; in 10 years, with my group "Ground's Oranges," we produced a series of independent music videos for him and other artists, much appreciated but little known to the general public; it was Lorenzo himself who introduced me to Antonio a few years later. In 2019, Antonio and Lorenzo decided to make an album together, and for the first time, instead of promotional music videos, they wanted to create proper acted short films, completely against the trend. At first, I was skeptical, but then I got involved, not yet knowing that that was the beginning of everything.
Then "Musica Leggerissima" became a huge hit, and new horizons opened for everyone, and so we were back to that phone call.
We wrote a semi-crazy treatment that talked about Sicilian legends, Greek mythology, the value of friendship, and all sorts of nonsense, thinking that probably no one would ever produce it, but instead...
Joined by screenwriter Michele Astori (also Sicilian), forced by the pandemic, we found ourselves working, each from their own home located in different parts of Italy, in long, tiring, but exhilarating Skype sessions. A great chemistry was created among the four of us, and in no time, the screenplay was ready.
The time between the last page written, the preparation, and the start of filming was so fast that I didn't even realize it. Now I'm here on set: there are trucks, sets, costumes, a million people, and me on my umpteenth first day of school.
Everything went smoothly from the beginning; with Lorenzo and Antonio, there's great harmony and a bond of friendship that spreads throughout the crew. On set, an atmosphere of camaraderie and complicity prevails despite the demanding days. In the following days, we realized what the magic of cinema truly means, how strange it is to write something and then see it materialized before your eyes, thanks to the commitment and love of all the workers who go above and beyond to give their best to your work.
30 days of filming literally fly by when every day you have a different set that looks more like a circus than a film, even when you happen to shoot during one of the hottest Sicilian summers ever.
Antonio, Lorenzo, and I still can't believe it; we really made a film, and we did it our way. We strongly wanted something that would tell the story of our island in a way never seen before, light years away from the usual stereotypes and clichés.
A modern on-the-road fairy tale about the value of friendship, about understanding and accepting those close to us, with a small "green" reflection on the side. A journey through an unprecedented, surreal Sicily, made of magnificent and desolate places at the same time, populated by strange individuals who guard imaginative truths. A story suspended between dream and reality where anything is possible.