03/07/2024 - The director takes a deep dive into her “modern queer fairy tale”, a film about transformation and the fear of change

(© Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary)

Maia (Sarah Short) seems like just another girl – except for her green hair. But life in the city is hard, and soon she escapes. The shy, lonely Teo is looking for someone to help him pick oranges in his orchard. People usually tend to ignore them both, but they really see each other for who – or what – they are. Director Ivana Gloria tells us more about her Karlovy Vary IFF Proxima title Chlorophyll [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivana Gloria
film profile].

Cineuropa: You seem to be narrating your own fairy tale here, but you decided to put it in a realistic context. Why?
Ivana Gloria: The movie was made very quickly, so everything was instinctive. I knew there would be realistic and fantastical elements, and it was a challenge because you want to make sure it’s believable for the audience – even despite my limited budget. At one point, I called it a “modern queer fairy tale”. I wanted the atmosphere of the film to feel somewhat magical – just like the stories our parents used to read us when we were children. I think it just helps us when we think about our everyday life. But it is for grown-ups because there is some erotic content, not to mention a climax experienced with nature.

At the beginning, Maia feels like a perfectly normal, if slightly alternative, character. Then, things get weirder.
It’s a film about transformation and the fear of change. It’s about finding your identity, which so many people can relate to. You are right – she seems like this alternative girl living in a big city. I was a bit inspired by Lady Bird. She had pink hair [laughs]. I put a lot of myself in this character. I grew up in a small town in the mountains, in northern Italy. There, you are just surrounded by nature. Now, when people are watching the film, they tell me: “But it’s YOU!” Unfortunately, I don’t have Sarah’s blue eyes. I have fought like her all my life, though. I had to learn to let go of the fear – otherwise, you just get stuck.

We shared many personal stories with Sarah to add depth to this character. We also spent some time trying to come up with the design of those flowers in her hair. It was important – that’s the first supernatural element we notice. Then, in a park in Rome, we noticed these small, blue flowers. We put them in Sarah’s hair and went: “That’s it.” Later, we created our own Frankenstein flower.

Maia and Teo are both isolated; they are lonely. It’s hard to tell what their connection is based on. Is it romantic, is it friendship, or is it something completely different?
Maia is stronger than we think, and what she is exploring here is mostly her relationship with nature. As for Teo, he is asexual. He isn’t looking for a conventional bond, but he does love nature. And that’s what she is: Maia is nature.

There are so many close-ups in the film – I think that Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Céline Sciamma
film profile] was very much on my mind. There was this relationship between a painter and the girl she was painting, and I loved their hidden desire. Also, as I said, I was captivated by Sarah’s gaze. I was looking for someone like that: someone who could just take you inside of her world and her fear. Once we got so close to them, it started to feel very intimate. Everyone felt it. Everyone felt their solitude, too.

You talk about female sexuality, and some of it feels very real: a violent partner, sexual frustration... But I wonder if these genre elements made it easier for you to even go there?
For sure. I wanted that violent scene to play out in one long take. We never rehearsed that before, but this moment was important – you can tell she is getting closer to who she really is. Nature is starting to call her.

In the early draft of the script, there was some Sardinian mythology – we shot the whole film there. There were fairies from that place, and she was hearing their voices. Then we decided to change it. My focus was to make a universal movie, and I didn’t want it to be specifically Italian. When we turned to nature instead, it just felt more powerful.