The 81st Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Maura Delpero’s second work Vermiglio, a Cinedora production with Rai Cinema, in co-production with Charades production (France) and Versus production (Belgium). The cast includes Tommaso Ragno, Giuseppe De Domenico, Carlotta Gamba, Roberta Rovelli, Martina Scrinzi, Sara Serraiocco.
"An intimate yet also collective story", noted Lucia Borgonzoni, Undersecretary for Culture in expressing her congratulations to the talented director Maura Delpero for her prestigious win. "Poetry won in our decision” explains Isabelle Huppert, president of the Venice 81 jury. “Vermiglio is a film which shows children growing, observing nature, with that special approach to seasons and animals, it won us over".
"Maura Delpero is becoming a consolidated presence on the Italian and international cinema scene and in this, her second film, she demonstrates a sure hand in her writing and use of cinematography, staging a world that becomes a collective memory through the telling of a personal story” commented Paolo Del Brocco, CEO of Rai Cinema who co-produced the film. “Maura Delpero is a powerful female voice with the power to be heard and appreciated across the globe. We knew that she is an author with an extraordinary stylistic approach, who proposes timeless stories, exploring the human soul in depth and tackling ever-relevant themes such as the search for independence and motherhood".
Shot in Trentino-Alto Adige, the film follows a mountain teacher’s large family in the year between 1944 and 1945, in particular his three daughters, Lucia, Ada and Flavia: no longer children, they are not yet women, scarred by a single gunshot that marks the end of their innocence.
The war is a distant, but omnipresent cloud. Pietro, a refugee soldier of Sicilian origins, comes to the Alps. He speaks little and writes less, but manages to win the heart of Lucia, the eldest. They marry and, in the meantime, the war ends. But as the world emerges from its tragedy, she enters into one, becoming known as "the mountain bride".
The setting and main location in the film is Vermigilio, but the snowy territories of Mezzana, Dimaro Folgarida, Pellizzano and Pejo in Trentino also provided locations.
Locations in Alto Adige included the wooded landscapes of Bassa Atesina, with their evocative, timeless atmosphere, and the Convent of San Floriano in Laghetti near the municipality of Egna, at the foot of Mount Madrutta. Deep in the woods, far from residential settlements, the 13th century Romanesque building was the main set for the convent scenes while the mountain hut location was built in the back courtyard.
Another room in the convent was used in the scene of Lucia’s dream, transformed into a Sicilian landscape where she travels in sleep. In another scene, newborns sleep in cribs next to the window in a bare room and, the cell where we see Ada, one of the sisters, as a nun, is also part of the convent.
The film was developed in a year-long process in 2021 by TorinoFilmLab, through “ScriptLab”, the TFL program for early-stage screenplays, and also supported in the production phase by the South Tyrolean Regional Fund.
"Without public funds my film would have lost integrity, I would not have been able to use dialect, the film would not have had its internal music, I would not have been able to guide the viewer on a journey through time and space or listen to the silence and the rhythms of the mountain. It is important to foster dialogue between independent cinema and institutions, we must defend cinematography and beauty", underlined Maura Delpero, adding: "Many thanks to all those people who help to bring work and family into balance, it is very difficult for women in particular, and I hope that society begins to understand this problem as one of its own and does not continue to abandon women".
“Supporting new talents in the film industry in Alto Adige is one of the main objectives of the work of IDM Film Commission Südtirol and Maura Delpero is one of the most active and appreciated local talents in the sector”, commented Birgit Oberkofler, Head of IDM Film Commission Südtirol. “The Silver Lion won at the Venice Film Festival is an award for her great courage and talent and we are happy to be standing alongside her, producer Francesca Andreoli of Cinedora and all the professionals and workers who made this film possible”.
After its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Vermiglio will be screened at the Toronto Film Festival in the Special Presentations section, and is scheduled for theatrical distribution in Italy on September 19 (Lucky Red).