New Director Irene Dionisio Begins Filming First Feature

Cineuropa is reporting that filming has started in Torino for Le ultime cose, the debut film by Irene Dionisio. The film, which tells three stories that intertwine at the ‘Banco dei Pegni’ (the offices of the State moneylender) in modern-day Torino, stars Fabrizio Falco Alfonso Santagata, Christina Andrea Rosamilia, Roberto De Francesco, Maria Eugenia D’Aquino, Salvatore Cantalupo and Anna Ferruzzo.

“One day, around the same time I entered into discussions over my first film with Tempesta, I walked into the Banco dei Pegni and was struck by how meaningful and lively this ‘debt office’ was”, said the director. “I spent a long time exploring the impact of financial pressure on people’s lives. The Banco dei Pegni became a place of observation for me for several months. Through dialogue, the relationships people have with objects and individual stories, I wanted to paint a tragic yet grotesque picture. I hope I have succeeded in my film in making this place into a metaphor for a society built on the eternal conflict between the debtor and creditor”.

“We got in touch with Irene Dionisio after seeing her documentary short La fabbrica è piena and there was an immediate understanding between us that we wanted to work together to recount the present”, said the producer Carlo Cresto-Dina. “Le ultime cose is another Tempesta film, which was born from in-depth research on the ground, fifteen re-writes of the screenplay, and a casting and coaching process which went on for months”.

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