22/02/2006

Another soulful thriller and Dostoevsky-esque unpunished crime, after Woody Allen’s Match Point, David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, Munich by Steven Spielberg, Le couperet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Costa-Gavras and, in Italy, Michele Soavi’s Arrivederci amore, ciao [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The newest addition to the list is Sergio Rubini’s La terra (lit. "The Land"), the actor/director’s eighth film, produced by Fandango in collaboration with Medusa, which will be out February 24 on 170 screens.

Rubini calls it a noir, in the simplest sense of the genre, in which the main character must solve a mystery while confronting his past. The character in question is Luigi (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a philosophy professor in Milan, who returns to Paris to visit his three brothers (Emilio Solfrizzi, Paolo Briguglia, Massimo Venturiello) and convince the most querulous one to sell the family farm that has fallen into disuse. Old grudges and wounds re-emerge as Luigi realizes that all three brothers, each in his own way, are involved in the web that sleazy loanshark Tonino has woven through the entire city.

A universal story tinged with the vivid colours of Italian south. "I left Puglia when I was 18. For me, it’s a place of memories", said Rubini. However, the grotesque thriller captured by his camera is only a pretence for a "strong idea" that began brewing 12 years ago, when Rubini first spoke about it to producer Domenico Procacci, also from Puglia. "I wanted to tell the story of a divided family that must find harmony again, not through things, but emotions. We all know the devastating effects of property, we all know how much it divides, how painful it is to divide things. Harmony can be reached only by letting emotions flow, without the obstacle of possessions, of stuff. For these four brothers, getting rid of the farm means letting go of a painful blemish, an open wound".

All of the actors are superbly directed, but Rubini gave himself the role of the loanshark, a magnificent bad guy: "Procacci convinced me to play that character. As puny as I am, I risked seeming too nice when, instead, I had to be evil, make people really happy about my death".

(Translated from Italian)