After achieving some wide distribution for their 2021 festival breakout The Tale of King Crab [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Alessio Rigo de Righi et M…
fiche film], which premiered in Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, Italian-American directors Alessio Rigo de Righi  and Matteo Zoppis are back with a new project, Heads or Tails?, a promising-sounding western thriller that, twice during our conversation, the directors describe as “dirty.” Awarded by a jury of consisting of industry figures Ilse Ronteltap, Mira Staleva and Konstantina Stavrianou, it was granted one of two Eurimages Co-Production Development Awards at last month’s IFFR Pro CineMart. For now, we have to wait to see exactly what a “dirty tracking shot” might look like.

Cineuropa: There are a few brief plot details floating around, but I’d love if you could share, in your own words, the story of Heads or Tails?, and delve into some of its themes.
Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis: After our previous film, The Tale of King Crab, we wanted to do a full-on western film. A real western, like they used to shoot in the old days: gritty, dirty and savage. But almost all these films had America as a backdrop, while in the beginning of our film, the myth of the American cowboy has already been cemented by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and his tour in Italy. So that’s our setting: Italy, 1891. It’s an Italian post-modern western, set in Italy: a ballad, a love story. Two lovers, wild at heart, fuelled by burning love in search of freedom, in stark contrast with the brutal violence of post-unification Italy. It’s a manhunt-escape-western – Bonnie and Clyde on a real mustang-kind of movie – triggered by a murder and a huge misunderstanding.

What are your initial ideas for its visual style, and are you looking to distinguish it from the documentary elements of The Tale of King Crab?
The idea is to make a very classic western, in terms of directing, but bending the boundaries of the genre in some of its angles. We’d like to challenge ourselves into making an arthouse film that can cross over into genre and reach a larger audience. Threading together well-known actors and non-actors, and creating a hallucinatory and surrealistic atmosphere with moments of deadpan humour. It will be shot on vibrant 35mm: pictorial but still grainy, using wide angles, lots of blocking and many “dirty” tracking shots.

How are you planning to use the €20,000 sum from the Eurimages award?
This award means a lot to us. We are starting our casting process and location scouting, therefore this money will help us to work our way on that territory. Besides being an honor to have received the prize among so many other great projects, it gave us confidence, and has put our project under a spotlight that is already helping our financing process.

What was your experience like in Rotterdam itself for CineMart? Did you receive any useful feedback or suggestions from the meetings you took part in?
It was a very positive experience for us since it was our first coming-out in the international market for this project, and we had no idea how it was going to be received. We had good feedback and we met interesting potential partners.

Are you also planning to take the project to other markets and schemes, for further funding opportunities?
CineMart has been a great experience, so eventually we will try to take it to other markets. But for now, we are focused on our script and on the casting and location scouting process.