08/10/2007

Twelve years after Lisbon Story, German director Wim Wenders is on a new European journey to yet “faraway so close” location: after filming in Dusseldorf and Essen, his latest film, The Palermo Shooting, is moving to Italy.

Little is known about the plot except that the main character (played by Campino, the frontman for rock group Die Toten Hosen) is a photographer in the middle of a nervous breakdown, who leaves Germany and in Palermo meets art restorer Giovanna Mezzogiorno.

While Campino’s role was written specifically for him (“besides being a musician,” says Wenders, “he is a great actor with a strong stage presence”), the choice of actress came from her “resemblance to ‘Virgin Annunciate’ by Antonello da Messina”, preserved in the regional capital. The cast also includes Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Dennis Hopper.

The project is not a new one – the filmmaker has been working on it for 20 years – and is finally being made thanks to European funds from the Region of Sicily, which is trusting this cultural event to get beyond stereotypes and clichés. “The film certainly won’t be about the Mafia,” says the director, “but on a contradictory city that is beautiful yet honest in displaying its scars, where the sacred and profane, life and death live side by side.”

Wenders has also received local financing, first and foremost from the Province of Palermo: “To be depicted by a master such as Wim Wenders,” said Province President Francesco Musotto, “is a precious opportunity to get to know us better through the eyes of an artist who understands as few do the contradictions of our present.”

The Palermo Shooting, the latest chapter of a career spent looking at metropolises (Summer in the City, Alice in the City, Tokyo-Ga, to name but a few), will be distributed in Germay by Senator Filmverleih while UK company HanWay Films is handling international sales.

(Translated from Italian)