Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival World Premiere - Magic Alps
When an Afghan refugee arrives in Italy with his goat to seek asylum, an Italian immigration officer finds himself in a difficult position because he doesn't know what to do with the animal. Based on a true story.
Interview with Writer/Director Andrea Brusa and Director Marco Scotuzzi
Watch Magic Alps on Vimeo on demand, Kanopy and Prime Video
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
We wanted to find the right story angle to access the very complex and articulated world of the refugees arriving in Italy. When we found the real story of an Afghan shepherd who arrived in the country with his goat to seek asylum we felt that it was the right plot to show the audience many contradictions of the European refugee policy.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
We are always interested in stories that can offer points of view usually inaccessible to the audience. This is always our starting point. We hope the audience will find in our film a profound story told with a very realistic approach and an inaccessible and original point of view about a relevant story world.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Magic Alps tells the story of the encounter between two people, an Afghan shepherd and the Italian immigration officer who finds himself in a difficult position because he doesn't know what to do with the shepherd's goat. When we read the news, we thought that this story was perfectly paradigmatic to show the audience the many inconsistencies of the European refugee policy. We always start with stories. Where there is an interesting corner, an original point of view to tell a situation, there is a chance for us to find a story that interests us.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
We developed the script for about six months with Giuseppe Isoni, who wrote it with us. After three months we did a test shoot, perfectly planned by our producer Andrea Italia. We shot all the movie in one day, just quickly trying all the scenes. It helped us a lot discovering what was working and not in the story. Our terrific director of photography Giuseppe Favale also had a crucial part during the pre-production. We decided together to use a 4:3 aspect ratio because it closes with more force the character in his close-ups and it makes his experience more claustrophobic, helping the audience to get into his point of view right away.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The film has been selected at the 2018 Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival and will have its world premiere there. They received about eight thousands submissions and selected just 75 movies. We are a bit anxious but can't wait to be there and screen the movie. So far we have received very positive feedbacks but let's see how the audience will react in France.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on this website?
We are very proud to be featured here, together with many filmmakers from all over the world. We hope it will help us to present our story to a broader international audience.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Magic Alps is about to start its film festival circuit. We are incredible honored that the first stop will be in a prestigious and renowned festival like Clermont-Ferrand. We have just signed with a very important distributor, Premiere Film, and we hope we will be able to screen the film in many other festivals.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have
This is a story that deserved to be told and we hope that Magic Alps will meet a bigger audience festival after festival.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How did you find this story?
Would you like to add anything else?
We would like to sincerely thank all the incredible people who work with us on this project. Cast and crew were simply fantastic. We were lucky enough to work with an Italian legendary actor, Giovanni Storti, who did an extraordinary job bringing his character to life. It was a gift to work with him. Also, we are very honored that Amnesty International Italy has supported our film since the early stages of the production.
Interview: February 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTIAQ+, scifi, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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MAGIC ALPS
When an Afghan refugee arrives in Italy with his goat to seek asylum, an Italian immigration officer finds himself in a difficult position because he doesn't know what to do with the animal. Based on a true story.
Length: 14 minutes
Director: Andrea Brusa and Marco Scotuzzi
Producer: Andrea Italia
Writer: Andrea Brusa, Giuseppe Isoni, Marco Scotuzzi
Director of photography: Giuseppe Favale
Editor: Alessandro Belotti
Directors bio: Andrea Brusa and Marco Scotuzzi are two Italian award-winning filmmakers. Andrea holds an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA. He wrote "Viola, Franca", a short film that has been nominated for the David di Donatello Awards (the Italian Oscars), selected at many film festivals like Tribeca. Marco is a commercial director and a photographer. They write and direct their fiction projects together. Their previous short film "Respiro" ("Breath") has screened in international film festivals such as HollyShorts, Newport Beach, Oaxaca Film Fest and Interfilm Berlin and was nominated for the 2017 Italian Nastro D'Argento (Silver Ribbon), awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.
Key cast: Giovanni Storti, Hassan El Aouni, Camilla Antoniotti, Fabio De Marco, Massimiliano De Mattia
Social media handles:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MagicAlps/
Other: https://www.facebook.com/NieminenFilm/
Made in association with: Invisible Film, Amnesty International Italy
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? At the 2018 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival