After a brief interval on the highway together with her debut movie — the tender, surreal coming-of-age story Chlorophyll — Italian director Ivana Gloria quickly started to comprehend that the movie pageant circuit would solely take her up to now. Starring newcomer Sarah Brief, the movie issues a lady referred to as Maia, who discovers that she just isn’t like different younger folks her age. Nevertheless it’s not simply her dyed-green hair that makes her stand out; when she strikes to the Sardinian countryside to choose oranges for the lonely Teo (Michele Ragno), Maia begins sprouting blue flowers that give off a particular scent, and her organic clock goes haywire.
Chlorophyll made its debut on the Rome Movie Pageant final yr, then travelled to the Karlovy Fluctuate Movie Pageant (the place it performed in Proxima), and final week competed on the Leeds Worldwide Movie Pageant within the U.Okay. That was it so far as pageant bookings went, so Gloria took issues into her personal fingers, first by including a secret and “very punk” screening at a pub in Bristol. “I felt like a rock star,” she says. “I jumped out of a taxi, ran in and introduced the film, after which I bought a beer, and did a Q&A after.” Tonight [November 12, 2024] she is internet hosting a self-arranged screening of the movie with Brief on the Genesis Cinema in London.
“I took the event to do it as a result of I used to be within the U.Okay.,” she explains, “so it was an opportunity to go to some mates and, on the identical time, [check out the reaction] within the U.Okay. too. I used to be so impressed by the folks within the Czech Republic, as a result of they had been having fun with themselves a lot in the course of the screening. I used to be curious to see how every nation has its personal expertise with it. Possibly it should assist us get a launch. In any other case, I’ll hold going on this punk approach for so long as I really feel like.”
DEADLINE: The place did the concept for Chlorophyll come from?
IVANA GLORIA: It began with the script from Marco Borromei, and he requested me to direct it. I instantly fell in love with the script as a result of I may really feel a lot what it was all about, as a result of I battle myself discovering my very own identification, accepting my sexuality. And so, I actually put all of this into the film in each scene. It’s about discovering your individual identification and accepting your sexuality, discovering your individual nature, your relationship with nature. And I like the best way the script does that, as a result of it’s a fairytale. You don’t query it, you simply settle for it, and also you go together with these characters on a visit, on a journey.
I attempted to make it an immersive expertise, so I targeted so much on the visible facet, the colours. I targeted on the sharp inexperienced as a result of I needed to be related to the sharp, vibrant inexperienced you see in spring, when the leaves are born, as a result of that is what it’s all about — being born once more, blossoming.
DEADLINE: Sound can be essential…
GLORIA: I come from animation — I did a number of stop-motion animation and conventional animation earlier than this — and in animation there isn’t any sound in any respect once you create transferring pictures. All of it comes after. And even right here, a number of it got here after. We labored so much with Silvia Orengo, the sound engineer, on the sounds. We had the entire huge group for sound, to seek out the best frequencies. At sure factors we use this very, very low frequency, one which form of connects you along with your intestine. That’s as a result of the character, Maia, is form of paralyzed at occasions, as a result of she’s scared. However normally when one thing scares you numerous, it’s usually because it’s attracting you numerous. And so, for me it was a really key component. It’s one thing I’ve been studying about myself as effectively. It’s about going the place you wish to go, even it’s very scary. Sooner or later, you’ll go there as a result of it’s simply in your nature. Nature will do what it must do, it doesn’t matter what it takes.
DEADLINE: How did you discover your lead actress, Sarah Brief?
GLORIA: I bought a self-tape from her agent. It was between, I don’t know, possibly seven, eight different younger women. And I bought instantly captured by her approach of hiding herself behind irony, behind her smile. I appreciated that as a result of it’s fairly a deep story, in a approach, however I needed to maintain it mild. So, I actually needed to have a personality like that. And naturally I used to be very a lot captured by her eyes. She has this unimaginable, very not-so-common mild blue eyes. So many individuals requested me if she was sporting lenses!
DEADLINE: In addition to sound, music can be an important a part of the movie. Who did the music, and the way did you strategy including music to the movie?
GLORIA: The music was by a collective referred to as Soha. It’s truly going to be launched quickly, the soundtrack. I met one in every of them after a screening of one other film, outdoors the cinema. I approached him, and we began collaborating. It’s a mixture of digital and ambient music, possibly.
DEADLINE: Do you take heed to music whilst you’re working?
GLORIA: Simply in my [earphones]. I had a observe I actually appreciated that I heard in one other film, an digital observe, the one that’s on the finish of Triangle of Disappointment [“Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)” by Fred Again and The Blessed Madonna]. I bought impressed by that scene for a selected second in that film: It’s nightmare scene within the movie the place Maia’s sporting a wig, and he or she has a darkish hair. So, it’s form of a second in her life when she’s considering of herself as a [normal] particular person, like others, however she realized she’s truly operating away from herself.
DEADLINE: What influenced you to make such a surreal, dreamlike film?
GLORIA: I don’t know. I keep in mind the primary film I noticed as a really, very younger teenager that form of affected me in a wierd approach. And afterwards I mentioned, “What does ‘directed by’ imply? And who’s Michel Gondry? [Laughs.] I at all times was fascinated by magicians and the magic of cinema. However that is one thing associated to my previous usually. For this film, I feel I bought moved by Border from Ali Abassi. Not that it’s so surreal. I feel that film is a little more concerning the nature, concerning the name to nature that we share in widespread. And there’s a name to nature in right here, it’s a name to – your nature, to who you might be. There’s a little bit of Midsommar, however that’s extra horror. And there’s a little bit of Portrait of a Woman on Fireplace. I actually like the strain between the characters, and the feminine gaze in it.
DEADLINE: What has been the response once you’ve proven it?
GLORIA: I really feel generally they’re form of shocked and shocked, and generally they get very moved, which may be very surprising. Once we screened it in Karlovy Fluctuate, folks had been so moved, and coming to me crying and saying, “Thanks for making this film. I felt so understood.”
Chlorophyll screens at 9pm on 12 November 2024 on the Genesis Cinema, London E1
