Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia: “It Was A Dark And Stormy Night In Sicily…”

The directors of Salvo are preparing a ghost story for us.

Piazza and Grassadonia have been tight-lipped about their new project but they’ve revealed a little to Cinecittà News.

Is it a ghost story? “It’s a Sicilian fairy tale with an important dark component”, Grassadonia told Cinecitta’s Cristiana Paternò. “The protagonists are two young people, in love, who are able to fulfill their dreams in the most unexpected way at the end of the film.

But will it be like a Hollywood ghost story with all kinds of special effects?

“No, the challenge is to bring the atmosphere of a fairy tale populated by ogres only accentuated by some characteristics of the location, of the characters, of the situations, but trying to do it in a minimalist way. The trick will be to bring out the emotions without the special effects that Garrone had to use.”

If you haven’t seen their first film, first of all, why not? Salvo is the remarkable first film from the duo, the story of the mobster, more lonely gunslinger than slick mafioso. Any joy he’s ever gotten from the proficiency of his chosen profession seems to have been sucked out of him. His landlords kowtow to him as if he is a king that might at any minute say, “Off with their heads!” but the convenience of having subservients at his beck and call to keep the cops off his back is expected, not appreciated.

So when Salvo arrives for a hit and finds his target’s blind sister, Rita, home alone, we really don’t see any clues as to why he doesn’t immediately whack her. She’s pretty? She’s blind? Whatever the reason for the mercy he shows her, it doesn’t extend to her brother. He does the job that he’s arrived to do, and then kidnaps Rita.

Rita is played by the beautiful rising star Sara Serraciocco, and if you don’t know her, read THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HER.

Keep up with the directors from Palermo by following Antonio Piazza on Twitter.