Venice Exhibition, Alessandro Borghi: “The Hanging Sun seems to me a miracle of cinema”

“At one point, I thought we would never do that. So when I got to the set, and I realized that we were really doing it, with this cast, with this technical level, it felt like a miracle of cinema.” Thus Alessandro Borghi presents, at the 79th Venice Film Festival, his latest film ‘The Hanging Sun – Sole di Mezzanotte’, directed by Francesco Carrozzini for Sky Original and produced by Cattleya, Groenlandia and Sky and presented at the Lido today as a film by closing Out of Competition. The film, the first produced by Sky Studios for Sky Original, is a noir thriller with an international production written by Stefano Bises and based on Jo Nesbo’s best seller ‘Sole di Mezzanotte’. We are in the heart of deep Norway. Borghi plays the role of John, a man who decides to disobey for the first time the criminal life that his father led him to lead up to that moment and to escape, chased by his brother Michael (Frederick Schmidt) who on his father’s orders wants bring him home. In a setting made of rarefied atmospheres of the Norwegian summer, between twists and moments of deep intimacy, the man will come across Lea (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her son Caleb (Raphael Vicas), who, after the death of the violent partner (Sam Spruell) run away from her father (Charles Dance), and from his psychological violence steeped in misunderstood Christian and bigoted values. The three will end up, almost naturally, to create a family. “The process we went through was to move away slightly from the novel, which would have made the film much more thriller more action -explained Borghi- Instead we chose and to do that. that we do best, that is, tell stories and the relationships between the characters “. The film, explains the Roman actor, “has many messages to pass on to the public, many fires, we had to identify which ones to choose” and what prevailed “is the fundamental theme of the management and acceptance of paternity: who is your father, the one who brings you into the world or the one who grows you, neither of them? “, says the actor.” What guided us a bit, together with Francesco (the director, ed) was trying to give it as much contemporaneity as possible -explains the screenwriter Stefano Bises- Bring him to 50 years later and change the character who is originally positive and attends evil for a good purpose, and give him a slightly more contemporary dimension of a hero who has good and evil inside “. The film is a first work by director Francesco Carrozzini. What attracted the director Francesco Carrozzini, (“an unusual job such a big production for a debut film, I hope I was up to it”, he says), is the fact that the protagonist “is a ‘broken’ character, and I too was breaking up at that moment, when I was losing my second parent at 32. It all starts with personal experiences. “The film deals with the sense of guilt, love, feelings of salvation through the relationships between the characters. redemption, redemption. “I was very impressed in the script by the bond that is created almost instantly between Lea and John that goes through the unspoken, a verbal communication – says Jessica Brown Findley – A unique bond, with an understanding between two people who come from two different backgrounds. but they are like two animals dazzled by the headlights that react to the environment around them to find a way to survive “. This woman “makes a bold choice, to completely change course in her life and they make that choice to be able to protect themselves and their loved ones and break a spiral of destructive violence.” “I think the film also has an important political dimension – says Sam Spruell- Warns against the dangers of isolation and having a society where decisions are made by men who have the helm in hand. I am from Great Britain, from Boris Johnson and having lived through Brexit I make direct parallels with these dangers. Instead, here in the story two people refuse this isolation and decide to open up to the outside “. For the actor who plays Michael, the brother of the protagonist, “the environment played a fundamental role in the making of the film – says Frederick Schmidt – The vastness, the immensity of this panorama compared to the inner journey of these characters resonated in all of us. We are all in love with Norway, even the most remote places. I remember one day in particular, it was very cold and we began to discuss profound existential issues, essential profound moments, which we will remember “. The film, distributed by NbcUniversal Global Distribution, and in Italy by Vision Distribution, will be in cinemas on 12, 13, 14 September and soon exclusively on Sky Cinema and streaming on Now.