17/09/2007

Preceded by more than its fair share of controversy, Scrivilo sui muri [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Write it on the Walls”) is finally making it to cinemas. The debate, which took place over the summer in the newspaper headlines, revolves above all around the title: for some it is an instigation to dirty up the cities, for others an invitation to express one’s creativity by personalising the anonymous city outskirts.

However, the film, directed by Giancarlo Scarchilli, is first and foremost a generational comedy, of the kind that is allowing Italian cinema to take back the market. Thanks to a star system (of a primarily television mould) that is once again attracting young audiences and bringing adolescents to theatres.

The leads here are no exception: from the handsome and sullen Primo Reggiani and Ludovico Fremont to Cristiana Capotondi, who in Night Before Exams [+see also:
trailer
film profile] helped initiate the most successful (and imitated) prototype of recent years.

In an industrial and run-down Rome, photographed by Blasco Giurato, Alex, Pierpaolo, Emiliano and Bronks are four graffiti writers united under the tag “Civil Disobedience”. When they meet Sole, in search of new experiences and struggling with an absent mother (Anna Galiena), will put their friendship to the test.

Among factories and (often abandoned) train tracks, the Rome chosen by Giancarlo Scarchilli, previously an assistant to Sergio Citti and Vittorio Gassman, is not one often seen in films. It was precisely while walking around the city that the director says he got the idea for the film.

“Looking at the graffiti of the metro cars,” said Scarchilli, “I started wondering what was behind those designs, the tags, the code names. It’s too easy to dismiss it as vandalism: they are the product of a society in which you exist only if you show off, while kids have to believe that success depends on each person’s qualities”.

Helped by real writers to prepare for their roles, the actors immersed themselves in what Fremont calls the “colourful world” of graffiti, which Capotondi, soon to be seen in the period film I vicerè by Roberto Faenza, adamantly defends: “It’s better to write on walls and be together with other people than to spend your days playing video games,” she said.

Shot on an approximately €3m budget, Scrivilo sui muri was produced by Film Kairós and Eagle Pictures, which is releasing it in Italy on September 21.

(Translated from Italian)