After being screened at Venice in the Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days) section, The Millionairs, the directorial debut of Claudio Santamaria, won the SIAE Award for Creativity at Venice.
Based on the story of the same name by Swiss illustrator Thomas Ott, the short film is 14 minutes long and tells the story of a long night during which, on the roads winding through a mountain forest, several characters commit a series of murders to get their hands on a mysterious suitcase.
“Reading Thomas Ott’s graphic novel – said Santamaria, who is also one of the most acclaimed actors on the Italian audiovisual scene – what really struck me was the great expressive strength of the images, which I thought would lend themselves brilliantly to film. Then there was the theme of humanity trapped in a vicious circle that repeats itself endlessly, driven by greed. Perhaps the most important thing though was that the story had no dialogue, which allowed me to tell it using film in its purest form, or rather, through images.”
The film, which is being distributed by LuckyRed and produced by GoonFilms, the production company owned by Gabriele Mainetti, who the actor worked with on the successful They Call Me Jeeg, centres around and intertwines the lives of five characters played by Sabrina Impacciatore, Peppe Servillo, Massimo De Santis, Giordano De Plano and Fabio Limongi.
Filmed entirely in Basilicata and Calabria, with support from the Calabria and Lucana Film Commission and the patronage of the two regions, The Millionairs has been recognised as being of cultural interest and received funding from the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.