My inner voice told me it’s going to be a good film: Marco Leonardi on Goutam Ghose’s film

Italian actor Marco Leonardi, whose credits include films like Cinema Paradiso and Like Water for Chocolate, has just wrapped up shooting for the Italian leg of Goutam Ghose’s multilingual Indo-Italian film. While speaking exclusively to CT over the phone, the actor shared his excitement and said he is in ‘a very positive frame of mind’. “Besides the lovely script and my challenging character, I had an inner voice telling me that it’s going to be a good film.That’s why I gave my nod. It’s difficult to explain, but that’s that,” confessed Marco, who will be in India from late May to shoot across Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Alang in Gujarat.
Sharing his experience of working with an Indian director, Marco said, “To be a good director, you need to be a good human being first. That’s exactly how Goutam is, and I love that. The key to the success of a film is the feeling it gives you. It doesn’t matter if you are from India or Italy. Love and feelings make you connect with the film. I feel connected to this one.” The actor, who plays the protagonist Alex, said he likes his character a lot. When asked why, he replied, “He is a widower. He carries a lot of pain inside him but chooses to keep it hidden. As an actor, it is a challenging task.”
Meanwhile, for Goutam, shooting for a month with a 31-member crew, with just four of them speaking English, was no mean task. Besides his itsy-bitsy Italian, the National Film Award-winning Bengali filmmaker had to resort to signs and signals, and most importantly, the language of cinema to communicate. “That is universal, you know. Everyone understood what I wanted. If I wanted to soften the light, I had to scream ‘luce’ and then move my fingers to turn it down. It was rather easy,” said Goutam, who has just returned from Italy.
Talking about the Italian kid, Emanuele Esposito (aka Lele), Goutam said he found him in Italy and he knew absolutely no English. “After faltering for the first two days, he eventually became very confident. We developed a unique friendship and he’d copy me at times. When I’d say ‘excellent’ after a good shot, Lele would shout, 'Ghootam, excellent!’” the filmmaker added.
The film is a story of journeys — of a child in Italy (Francesco) who has lost his mother and a child in Mumbai (Lala) who has lost his motherland. Their journeys are connected by Alessandro aka Alex — Francesco’s father and a filmmaker. After losing his wife, Alex goes to shoot in India where he meets Lala. Italian actress Cristina Donadio plays Alex’s mother and the Indian cast is yet to be finalised.