Apulia Film Commission

An important Italian-Belgian co-production has arrived in Apulia with the film “Marina”, shooting for which starts on Monday 17th Seprember in Bovino (province of Foggia). The project boasts an internationally renowned creative core group: Oscar-nominated Belgian director Stijn Coninx, award winning co-producers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Palm D’Or winners at Cannes for “Rosetta” and “L’Enfant – Una storia d’amore”, producer and director Cristiano Bortone and an outstanding cast led by Luigi Lo Cascio and Donatella Finocchiaro.

Set in 1948 in a beautiful small village in the south of Italy, the film is inspired by the life of the famous musician Rocco Granata, well-known for his song “Marina”. Moving between Italy and Belgium in the 1950s, a period in which many Italians emigrated in search of work in the coal mines of northern Europe, the film deals with the epic and universal story of a man who is able to fulfil his dreams through the extraordinary musical revolution of the period.

“Marina”, co-produced by Peter Bouckaert’s Eyeworks Film & Tv Drama Nv (Belgium), Cristiano Bortone’s Orisa Produzioni (Italy) and Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Les Films Du Fleuve (Belgium) with support from the Apulia Film Commission, is the first beneficiary of the “Apulia International Film Fund”. This innovative grant, unique in Italy both for its format and how it is run, is assigned to European and non-European audiovisual, film and TV productions.

Antonella Gaeta, president of the Apulia Film Commission, explains; “With this production, the international fund, presented last May at the Cannes Film Festival, has shown its first positive results and had demonstrated that it is an opportunity for growth and comparison for the region. “Marina” is the first of a series of international productions from companies who are discovering and choosing Apulia, so widening audiovisual horizons”.