Vincenzo Pirrotta’s film presented at the authors’ days of the Venice Film Festival
A strong film, “we were the first to be impressed by writing it, producing it and seeing it again. It’s a story that stays with you. It tells you about one of the lowest points that man can touch. The definition of ugly, dirty and bad is the one that best suits these characters, to whom however you remain attached ». This is explained by Salvatore Ficarra, co-writer and co-producer with Valentino Picone, through their company, Tramp Limited (together with Rai Cinema), of Spaccaossa, a sulphurous story of crime and desperation, inspired by a real news story, with which he made his debut as film director Vincenzo Pirrotta, already award-winning author and theater director, as well as actor.
The film, which made its debut at the Venice International Film Festival in the Venetian Nights section of the Days of the Authors, will soon arrive in theaters with Luce Cinecittà. In the cast, in addition to Pirrotta, there are, among others, Selene Caramazza, Ninni Bruschetta, Giovanni Calcagno, Filippo Luna, Simona Malato, Luigi Lo Cascio and Rory Quattrocchi. At the center of the story is an improvised and violent Palermitan criminal organization that breaks the bones of consenting victims, from the videopoker player Machinetta (Lo Cascio), to the father of the family Mimmo (Luna), and simulates accidents to collect hefty insurance compensation . To recruit the ‘victims’ is Vincenzo (Pirrotta, who defines his role as “a man without qualities”), as obedient to the gang as to his mistress (Quattrocchi). The meeting with Luisa (Caramazza), drug addict, could open a different way for him, but the man ends up involving the girl in the ‘tour’ as well.
“We immediately said yes to the film – adds Ficarra -. It was very formative, we explored feelings that for us as Ficarra and Picone are not usual. It was a beautiful journey ». For the duo it was also the first time as co-writers (with them and Pirrotta there is also Ignazio Rosato) in a film that wasn’t theirs: “It was a wonderful challenge, because Vincenzo is a captain and an extraordinary showman who already has very beautiful and meaningful theatrical experiences in its arc. We have brought our experience of construction, of framing, into this team. Valentino and I are constantly looking for new and different experiences, for different expressive ways.
Pirrotta has decided to make his debut at the cinema with such a hard story, because it tells “a double misery: that of those who break, a misery dressed in cynicism, and that, dressed in desperation, of those who agree to have their bones broken”. For the victims it is “like a descent into hell”. It is a universal story of denunciation «in which I show how these people are often left alone. Events that you find similar all over the world, wherever there is a periphery of misery, from Buenos Aires to Paris ».
September 19, 2022 – Updated September 19, 2022, 6:37 pm
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