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Alba Rohrwacher

Shooting Star 2009 – Italy

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With five films out in 2008 alone, Alba Rohrwacher has become a household name among Italian audiences, who after getting to know her in Daniele Luchetti’s My Brother Is an Only Child [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Luchetti
interview: Riccardo Tozzi
film profile
]
and Silvio Soldini’s Days and Clouds [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(which brought her first David di Donatello win) finally saw her in starring roles, in Anna Negri’s Good Morning, Heartache and Pupi Avati’s Giovanna’s Father.

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Cineuropa: What do you expect from the Shooting Star experience?
Alba Rohrwacher: I’m very curious, I’d like to see the work of my colleagues. Some – like Hafsia Herzi, the star of The Secret of the Grain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile
]
– I’ve seen at the cinema, and I’d really like to speak about work with them. You become better by exchanging ideas.

What do you consider the most important moments of your career?
First of all, the National Film School, where I realised my passion for acting could become a job. Then there were certain filmmakers who taught me so much. In particular, I owe a lot to Luchetti and Soldini, who gave me small characters that were nevertheless very well crafted.

How was the jump to starring roles?
Good Morning Heartache, an independent, small film that, however, the entire cast really believed in, made me understand for the first time what it meant to be on screen from the beginning to end, to be the crux of a story. Then there was Giovanna’s Father, which was hard but emotional. I trusted Pupi Avati, and the sensitivity with which he strips actors of any overtones to reach the essence of the characters.

Along with these more noted films there are also some lesser known titles.
Yes, films to which I feel very much bound, such as 4-4-2 Il gioco più bello del mondo and Non c’è più niente fare [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Or In carne e ossa by Christian Angeli (with whom I’d made a short film that won many awards, Fare bene mikles), a demanding and psychologically powerful feature debut. A very low-budget feature debut, which has been waiting for a distributor for two years.

What can you tell us about your upcoming projects?
In March, as I start shooting on Silvio Soldini’s new film, Enzo Monteleone’s Due partite will be released. It’s an interesting project that brought together many challenges: adapting Cristina Comencini’s huge theatrical hit for the cinema; setting it entirely in interiors; and a man directing what is very much a women’s story, with a cast of extraordinary actresses.

In the meantime, you also worked with another great actress.
Yes, I play Tilda Swinton’s daughter in Io sono l’amore (“I Am Love”) by Luca Guadagnino, a director with a great love of the image. The story is about an upper-class woman from Milan who falls head over heels in love with a much younger chef. Tilda, who I’ve always looked up to, is a surprising actress, full of energy and very generous.

There is also Giorgio Diritti’s L’uomo che verrà.
More than a film, it was a life experience. It tells of the massacre in Marzabotto by the Nazis, seen through the eyes of a little girl. The screenplay, which is full of poetry, remains true to the pure, free and delicate perspective of main character. And it very authentically describes the life of a farming family living in the country.

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