23/02/2009

From its very title, Iago [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the new film by Volfango De Biasi, turns the point of view of the Shakespearian tragedy on its head. Beginning with the main character – no longer Othello (French model Aurelien Gaya, who is badly dubbed) but his historic antagonist, played by Nicolas Vaporidis, star of De Biasi’s feature debut, Come tu mi vuoi [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

“I love the classics and wanted to tell a pop fairy tale”, said the director, who with co-screenwriter Felice Di Basilio transposed the most celebrated jealousy play in literary history to modern-day Venice.

According to Vaporidis, what drives Iago, here an architecture student from a humble background, is “social injustice. He is not cynical or calculating, but an honest man, an idealist who wants to prove his worth. His dreams, however, are crushed when an undeserving rich kid steals everything from him”. Including the love of Desdemona – Laura Chiatti, the daughter of the class-conscious head of the architecture department (Gabriele Lavia) – who Iago tries to win back with a clever scheme.

The film was inspired more by Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet than O (the 2001 adaptation of Othello set in an American high school) and, added De Biasi, “makes a ‘political’ statement while also entertaining, with a cast that audiences have shown they love”.

Produced by Ideacinema, Cattleya and Medusa Film (which will release the film on approximately 450 screens), in collaboration with Sky, Iago will hit theatres February 27.

(Translated from Italian)