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A Conversation with Maura Delpero (VERMIGLIO)

Italian filmmaker Maura Delpero, who captivated audiences with her sensitive exploration of motherhood in Maternal, returns with Vermiglio, a wartime romance that earned her the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and a Golden Globe nomination. Working with legendary cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, Delpero transforms a remote mountain village in 1944 into the stage for an intimate drama where the echoes of war ripple through one family’s carefully ordered world.

Blending professional performers like veteran actor Tommaso Ragno with non-professional actors from the region, Delpero brings her documentary background to bear on this narrative feature, crafting a story that feels both historically precise and emotionally immediate. In documenting the passionate relationship between a fugitive soldier and a schoolmaster’s daughter, portrayed by revelatory newcomer Martina Scrinzi, the filmmaker examines how moments of profound social upheaval can catalyze deeply personal transformations. The following conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Hammer To Nail: The film has a very specific location and topic. Basic question to start but what inspired the film and what was the screenwriting process like for this one.

Maura Delpero: The inspiration was a private event. The death of my Father. He came from this little town. He was part of a big family with 10 kids. When he passed, it brought out a lot of images and stories I had in me. I discovered I had a whole world inside me. I also felt this was a world that was slowly disappearing, yet it still has a lot to teach us. I wanted to make a movie right at the brink of the society we are currently living in. The end of the world wars and the beginning of traditional society. This was a transitional moment that I thought would be important to look at in this moment. I did a lot of interviews with old people in the territories. I loved doing that. I come from documentary films. They were so helpful, they really helped to nail down all the details and make the world authentic.

HTN:  How did the casting process work? Everyone is so perfect in their roles.

 MD: I love casting and I love directing actors. It’s something I give a lot of time to, especially when you plan on working with non-professionals. For some roles I opened casting for professionals and non-professionals while others I was sure it had to be one or the other. There were different stages of casting. Some of it happened while rehearsal had already begun. I tried to cast people from the region as much as possible. All of the children are from the region. I wanted them to speak the dialect of the time so that was important. I wanted teenagers that did not look too influenced by contemporary life. The children you see in the film do not use their phone ever. It’s rare to find children like this at this moment in time. Extras were characters in this film because it’s the repeated faces you see across the town that make this world.

HTN: Lucia and Cesare are such great characters.  How did they come to you

A still from VERMIGLIO

MD: Lucia wrote me an email when she heard about the casting. She had done some dance and theater before. She wanted to be an actress and she comes from the region. This video she sent me made me very optimistic she could lead the film. She had no problem getting her hands dirty with the animals. I loved that her face was timeless. It’s like a painting. The character goes through a big transformation and I could tell from the first day that she would be able to depict this. We considered some other professional actors from Rome, but they did not have this authenticity that was so important to me. I am proud because she has great talent. We discovered a really talented actress. Cesare is played by Tommaso Ragno. Normally he plays very different characters. A lot of people did not recognize him in Italy. I was really excited about this because he is normally a city boy. I saw through his physically he could have the harshness of a man of that time and region. He also has that great voice and modern pathology that contradict. It’s a multifaceted character and I knew he could do it. He had a lot of preparation to do including learning the dialect.

HTN: The conversation that happens at the 26 minute mark between Cesare and the doctor regarding the child is a chilling moment showing the cold nature of the time. It’s a gorgeous single shot. What was important to you here?

MD: There are a lot of layers in that shot. There is a society layer which is the teacher and the doctor of the town meeting. The mutual respect between these two powerful people in this town. There is also this acceptance of the rules of life and nature. Things we cannot control. There is some strong machismo. It’s strange, it’s almost like mansplaining how he instructs the doctor not to tell her. It comes from the heart because he does not want her to suffer, however, he is also treating her like a child. It breaks my heart to see when we cut back to her, how she’s holding onto her last bit of hope.

HTN:  After Adele gives birth at around the hour 15 minute mark, Cesare gets upset that the children “Stole” flowers from the Neighbor’s garden as a gift. Adele responds, “After 10 births you’ve never given me a single flower!!” Cesare lashes out at this accusation. What was your thinking behind this moment?

MD: In daily life, a woman would never dare fight with her man in front of the children, except when he attacks the son. Cesare does not understand him so she is very protective of him. Dino has emotional intelligence that Cesare simply does not. He’s very important to the family because he always makes sure everyone is ok. She mostly accepts this role in society, until she sees Cesare attack Dino and she breaks the rule. The love of motherhood is more important than the rule. She says what she really believes. Cesare after yelling, smoking a bunch of cigarettes and feeling ashamed, he goes to bed and has this moment with her in bed. Beds are a very sincere place. He turns into a child at this moment and curls up next to her. He also confesses to her worries about the fact that Pietro is not writing. He could have told the people at the bar, but he told his wife in bed because of that intimacy. The power dynamics that you see during the day are not what they are at nighttime in bed.

HTN: After Lucia gives birth, there is a magical and haunting moment in the woods where she roams around and various stunning long shots are taken. truly awe inspiring. What were you going for?

 MD: You might read it as she is searching for death, but I actually think it is the opposite. She is hunting for life. She escapes all the people who are talking about her in third person as if she was not there. Except her cousin who says sorry, everyone is just judging and talking. She needs to go to this silent womb in nature to grab life. Her suffering is so deep that she could go to death. When we arrive at this cascade and go up the waterfall, the imagery is meant to invoke  the waterfall as her tears. She could throw herself, fortunately she goes on.

 – Jack Schenker (@YUNGOCUPOTIS) 

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Jack Schenker is based in Los Angeles, CA. He has worked in the film industry for 5 years at various companies including Mighty Engine, Film Hub, and Grandview. Jack continues to write for Hammer to Nail, conducting interviews with prominent industry members including Steve James, Riley Keough, Christian Petzold, and Ira Sachs. His dream is to one day write and direct a horror film based on the work of Nicolas Winding Refn and Dario Argento. He directed his first short film this year titled Profondo. Jack's favorite filmmakers include Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Denis Villeneuve, Bong Joon Ho, David Lean, John Carpenter, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, and Robert Altman to name a few. Look out for Jack on Twitter (aka X). You can see the extent of Jack's film knowledge on Letterboxd, where he has written over 1000 reviews and logged over 1600 films.

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