Pietro Messina told ANSA on Wednesday that he feels "calm" despite the fact that his feature debut L'Attesa (The Wait), starring Oscar winner Juliette Binoche, will be one of only four Italian films in competition at the 72nd Venice Film Festival in September.
"I'm aware of the exceptional nature of everything that's happening," said the 34-year-old native of the Sicilian town of Caltagirone. "Maybe it's because I'm on vacation with my family and my second child will be born during Venice, but at the moment I don't feel much pressure".
While at Cannes with his short film Terra (Land), Messina caught the eye Indigo Film producer Nicola Giuliano. When he finished the screenplay for L'Attesa after four years, he pitched it to Giuliano, who picked it up two days later.
"I know that's unusual for the film world, but that's how it happened," Messina said.
Twenty days after that, the emerging director had secured Juliette Binoche for the lead.
"She did something crazy in order to make this movie," Messina said. "She cancelled a theatre tour in the United States".
Messina, a graduate of Rome's Experimental Film Centre, chose to shoot in his home town in Sicily.
"It's a dreamlike film, a little magical, with a spiritual dimension and a strong theme, which powerful, absolute love," Messina explains.
It tells the story of Anna (Binoche) and Jeanne (played by Lou de Lagee) isolated in an ancient villa in the Sicilian countryside at the feet of Mount Etna.
They are waiting for Giuseppe (Giovanni Anzaldo), Anna's son and Jeanne's boyfriend. Their "almost irrational" wait becomes an act of love and willpower: can believing in someone's return actually make them come back? The movie will be in theaters September 17.
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