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ROME FILM FESTIVAL Extra

Coelho readers make collective Experimental Witch

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If it’s true that when someone reads a book, they always create a film about it in their minds, why not do just that: create a film from the impressions of one’s own readers? This brilliant intuition came to Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, the result of which is The Experimental Witch, a collective film making its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival in the Extra sidebar.

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The feature film came about from the invitation that the highly popular author (over 100 million copies of his books have sold worldwide) sent out to his passionate readers over the Internet: to make a short film around one of the 14 characters in his novel The Witch of Portobello representing his/her point of view on the film’s mysterious main character, Athena.

"After publishing a book, I meet readers and gather impressions on how they have experienced the story I offer them,” said Coelho. "I was sorry that I couldn’t dig deeper into their impressions. Thanks to the Internet, this incredible opportunity to meet the sensibility and minds of my readers finally came about".

Many took up the challenge of the writer, considered a guru by scores of people. Over 6000 works were submitted from throughout the world, and were selected by Elisabetta Sgarbi, Coelho’s editor in Italy for the Bompiani publishing company.

The result is a collage of 14 shorts (which together 110 minutes), edited by Emanuele Giardina and Riccardo Sgalambro (editor of Franco Battiato’s Musikanten and Nothing Is As It Seems), some of which are well done. The entire work and the numerous styles represented are undoubtedly interesting, but the film is hard to digest for those who don’t the book or Coelho’s world in general. The Experimental Witch is, and remains, a film by the readers of Paulo Coelho.

Produced by Betty Wrong (alias Elisabetta Sgarbi) and Olney Entertainment, the entire (six-hour) version of the film will be released on a DVD along with a new edition of the book.

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(Translated from Italian)

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