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| A cinema career in his sights - Matteo Oleotto: "I have always thought that, for your first film, you have to focus on something that you know very well." |
Italian director Matteo Oleotto, whose first feature Zoran, My Nephew The Idiot (Zoran, Il Mio Nipote Scemo) receives its premiere as part of the Italian Film Festival this weekend (Glasgow GFT, 7 March, Edinburgh Filmhouse, 8 March and Inverness 13 March) had a chequered background before finally deciding to devote himself to film-making.
He worked in a call-centre, spent time as a lifeguard, joined a removals company, and was also involved in a carwash, assembling micro-components, and was a night assistant in a psychiatric hospital. He has also served as a waiter, an assistant cook, a gardener, a basketball referee, a hotel porter and a swimming instructor.
After he graduated in acting from the Nico Pepe Academy of Dramatic Arts in Udine and then in film direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, he decided his chosen course. He has been working for about ten years in television, but has always dreamed of cinema.
Why did he choose Zoran for his debut film? He explained: “I tried to put together a few things that I wanted to narrate. The included a specific geographic place, the people of my homeland and a strange relationship between two opposite characters. I have always thought that, for your first film, you have to focus on something that you know very well.
“And I do know this very well. I know my land and all its eccentricities and beauties, I know the people living there and I have always been attracted by their way of relating to each other. I was looking for a story, along with co-scriptwriters Daniela Gambaro, Marco Pettenello, Pier Paolo Piciarelli, that could include everything that I wanted to narrate.”
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| Zoran, My Nephew Ihe Idiot |
After his spell of odd jobs he decided to enrol at the Theatre Academy because studying at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia did not grant him exemption from military service. As soon as he had finished the Academy, he started studying at the Centro Sperimentale and abandoned his career as an actor, except for a few occasions in which friends asked him to help them with their projects.
Because of his roots in acting he loves talking to the cast. “I like to see them improvise. I listen to their suggestions and I ask the other departments to organise their work according to the actors’choices when possible. So, although my own life choices were a bit random at the beginning, I would do it all over again just the same,’” he said.
Oleotto was born in 1977 in Gorizia. His short-films, A doppio filo, Casino Paadajz, Can Can, Stanza 21, Passeranno anche stanotte, and La luna ci guarda, travelled around the world winning awards and special mentions.
He also worked as director of TV shows and commercials on channels such as La7, MTV, RAI3, History Channel and Foxlife. He served as co-producer, assistant director and actor of the multi award winning short Nonna si deve asciugare by Alfredo Covelli and shared the lead role in the film Lezioni di Cioccolato by Claudio Cupellini.
He is currently working on his second feature film. In his spare time he is in the wine business, managing the family vineyard, which he inherited.
Matteo Oleotto will appear at GFT on Saturday (7 March) at 17.30 to introduce the film and to take part in a Q&A afterwards with IFF co-director Richard Mowe. On Sunday (8 March) he will be at Edinburgh Filmhouse at 17.50 to introduce the film and to take part in a Q&A with IFF co-director Allan Hunter. Zoran also screens (without Oleotto) at Inverness Eden Court on 13 March at 20.30.
Zoran, My Nephew the Idiot will be distributed in the UK and Ireland by CinéFile. Italian Film Festival continues in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Inverness from 6 to 19 March.
