It is almost a character in its own right, with a maternal, primordial and simultaneously unpredictable dimension,' says director Irene Dionisio Reaping upbeat initial reviews, Italian film “Idda” had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the TIFF Platform competition, whose non-English language winner, starting this year, will be directly eligible for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Directed by Irene Dionisio (“Pawn Street,” “Shores”) and starring Tecla Insolia (“Familia,” “The Art of Joy”) and Romana Maggiora Vergano (“There’s Still Tomorrow,” “Portobello”), “Idda” is a portrait of two childhood friends who decide to climb Mount Etna, an active volcano on the Eastern Coast of Sicily. Carefree Sofia and the more restrained Adele couldn’t be more different, but they share an unbreakable bond that is tested when confronted with bottled-up resentment, past secrets and the fear of change as they make their way up the treacherous volcano.
Rai Cinema International Distribution is handling international sales for the film. Variety had the opportunity to interview director Irene Dionisio about the film. What does Mount Etna represent in the film?
Irene Dionisio: In Sicilian dialect, “idda” means “she,” and it is also how people refer to Mount Etna: the she-volcano. I was drawn to the idea of Etna as a force capable of giving life and death simultaneously—something maternal, but also dangerous and unknowable. The mountain becomes a mirror of Adele and Sofia’s inner disturbances.
As they climb, the landscape changes from the slopes descending toward the sea, where nature meets civilization, to the wilder and more mysterious summit. Their ascent is both physical and emotional: they are searching for answers about memory, friendship, desire, adulthood, and the choices that have separated them. The volcano also carries the idea of ancestral breath.
Adele and Sofia have imagined since childhood that they would reach the crater together and listen to Etna breathe. That dream becomes a way of confronting everything they have left unspoken. Why did you decide to tell this story for your sophomore feature?
Dionisio: I wanted to make a film about female friendship, grief, memory, and the difficult transitions that take place when we move from one stage of life into another. I later learned that, at the time of her death, she had been thinking about motherhood. That knowledge made the loss even more painful, because I had not known what she was experiencing and could not be close to her then.
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