‘Best of Youth’ Director Marco Tullio Giordana Set For Drama ‘La Vita Accanto’ Co-Written With Marco Bellocchio Who Will Also Produce (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian auteur Marco Tullio Giordana, best known internationally for sweeping terrorism-themed epic “The Best of Youth” (2003) is set to soon return behind the camera on “La Vita Accanto” a psychological drama about a talented young woman contending with profound rejection due to her looks.

Shooting is set to start on June 5 in Vicenza, Northern Italy, on “Vita Accanto,” (the title can be translated as “the life beside”) which is co-written and produced by Marco Bellocchio – the Italian master who is currently competing for a Cannes Palm d’Or with “Kidnapped.” Italy’s Intramovies has started launching pre-sales on “Vita Accanto” in Cannes.

Giordana’s new project is based on an eponymous prizewinning novel by Italian writer Mariapia Veladiano about a girl named Rebecca who from the very moment of birth becomes ostracized by her family and the world around her “because she does not conform to aesthetic canons [of beauty],” Giordana told Variety. “Her physical appearance prompts great perturbation in her mother, who rejects her and then plunges into a deep depression,” the director said. “Her entire adolescence is marked by shame and wanting to hide from others.” But from an early age Rebecca reveals extraordinary musical abilities.

Her aunt – who is her father’s twin – is a famous concert pianist who recognizes her talent, so Rebecca becomes her pupil. The aunt, to be played by ace Italian stage and screen actor Sonia Bergamasco (“The Best of Youth”), Bergamasco is also a trained classical pianist, becomes a sort of deputy mother for the girl whose physical particularity in the film will be represented by a very visible red stain on her skin, Giordana said.