For some time I thought it would be very nice to have an experience as an actress, but I was waiting for the magic of something that would strike me and allow me to do something that I couldn’t do as a singer ”. For Elodie, the magic arrived thanks to Ti mangio il cuore, a new film directed by Pippo Mezzapesa, in Orizzonti in Venezia 79 and in cinemas from 22 September with 01 distribution, then from 2023 on the new Paramount + platform. Produced by Indigo Film with Rai Cinema and Paramount +, Ti mangio il cuore is inspired by the homonymous book by Carlo Bonini and Giuliano Foschini, published by Feltrinelli. “It was proposed to me that it was still a draft – Mezzapesa says – and I found a detailed study on the Gargano mafia, a very brutal mafia, which kills by removing the connotations, and therefore also the memory. Reading through the pages, among the various stories of this novel, I found that of the first penitent of the Foggia mafia. A story that I wanted to tell many years ago and that I found here: the story of a cruel world seen through the lens of an impossible, burning love “. To rekindle an ancient feud between two rival families is the forbidden love between Andrea (Francesco Patanè), reluctant heir of the Malatesta family, and Marilena (Elodie), the beautiful wife of the boss of the Camporeale. A fatal passion that brings clans back to war. But Marilena, exiled by the Camporeale and prisoner of the Malatesta, disputed and outraged, will oppose with the strength of a mother to a destiny already written. “Marilena is a real woman, with a complex character, who rebels against certain patterns – says Elodie -. I completely fell in love with the character, I immediately thought it was a great opportunity for me, to confront myself with something very far from that. which I usually do “. “Surely I discovered things about myself, also and above all thanks to others, because working together with others you discover your difficulties but also the way to overcome them, thanks to people who supported me, I am thinking for example of Lidia Vitale (who in film stars Teresa Malatesta, Andrea’s mother, a ferocious woman who stops at nothing to see the design of a terrible revenge completed, ed), who was welcoming and helpful with me right from the start ”, continues Elodie. And the film strongly explores the dichotomy between these two female figures: “Two women who love, of a different but still strong love, one who remains entangled, victim of a context, who cannot oppose this context, prisoner of a sick love “, says director Pippo Mezzapesa. “And then Marilena, and with her the love that could be redeeming, that could free Andrea from this context but that cannot completely break the inevitability of evil. In a certain sense, the figure of Marilena can remember that of Helen of Troy, because of which war broke out between Athens and Sparta, but here she is a very active woman, capable of subverting events “, explains the director. There were two starting points for me, black and white and Elodie. With Nicola Giuliano (Indigo, ed) we reasoned about the possibility of having an actress who could play such a strong character, in an instinctive and also fragile way, I I immediately thought of her. I blew him away and because of this madness of his he accepted the proposal. So we made her read the script and she, who is the craziest, bravest and most instinctive of all, said yes “. But it is an experience , that of an actress, which pe nsa to continue? “Absolutely yes, if only to continue exploring parts of me that I may not yet know. But as in this case it always depends on the projects, I want to choose things carefully, stay in them ”. The cast of the film Tommaso Ragno, Francesco Di Leva, Michele Placido, Brenno Placido compete: “Elodie is just a wonderful interpreter who embellishes a film and a cast that we have chosen with a lot of commitment, attention. We wanted actors who could also blend in, blend in with reality, returning archetypal characters. I believe that the film can speak to a wide audience and I hope that Elodie can somehow represent a driving force for this too “, Mezzapesa continues, concluding:” I am convinced that a reality must be told both for the lights but also for the shadows it hides, its wounds, and telling them could help heal them “.