(From left to right) Darren Strowger, Marco Perego, Alexander Dinelaris and David Paul from the movie Dovecote at the 20th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival Photo: LA ELEMENTS
HOLLYWOOD, CA (LA ELEMENTS) 8/19/2024 – Dovecote, the emotional and haunting short film by Marco Perego, stars Zoe Saldaña as a young woman (none of the characters have names in this movie) returning to the outside world after serving time in prison.
Set in the Giudecca Institution of Detention in Venice, Italy, Dovecote opens with a reflection of a town in the waters of the Venice Canals. A moody vision of sapphire blue and black unfolds as a man clad in a heavy coat to offset the cold, pilots a boat while the chattering of birds breaks up the stillness. He ties up the vessel and goes inside.
We see the young woman getting dressed in the room that she shares with at least a dozen other female prisoners.
She makes her way over to her best friend, (Marilena Ariballie) and in a sweet gesture of solidarity, exchanges sweaters with her.
A guard opens the door, and she exits. While standing in line to retrieve her belongings, more painful goodbyes are being expressed. Throughout this movie there is minimal dialogue. And unlike the silent films of Hollywood’s golden era, there are no subtitles either. This effect directs all attention to the emotional expressions on the faces of the actors.
The woman receives gifts from the other prisoners and and at this point, the audience feels the impact of the impending change in the life of Saldaña’s character. What will it be like to be free but cut off from the people who are not family by blood but by choice?
Dovecote provides insightful illumination to the answer of that question.
Scene from Dovecote
We caught up with writer/director Marco Perego and here is what he had to say about the inspiration behind his film, the casting process and more.
What was the inspiration for Dovecote?
The film is part of the Venice Bienale and I shot inside a women’s prison Guidecca in Venice. I went to interview these women and the big inspiration was when I was asking the question to them was about what freedom was and what does it mean to belong somewhere outside the inside and that’s what they told me and I tried to portray that in the film.
In your film you use very minimal dialogue. Very minimal. Why did you make that choice?
Because these women, ten women at a time are sharing a cell. In the prison where we shot there were 81 women, 28 from Italy the rest came from all the rest of the world. And they have been incarcerated, ten women at a time in one cell and the language is all different all the time.
Tell me about the casting process.
There is no casting. There was only my wife (Saldaña) two more actors and the rest are all inmates, women from the real prison.
Which directors have inspired you?
I’m from Italy. I like people like Fellini or I like people like Tarkovsky or Stanley Kubrick. These are people I like.
What’s next for you?
I just finished another film where the script went to the Academy Museum it’s called The Absence of Eden and now I’m writing a new film. I think it will be ready for the end of December and that’s when I’m going to make the film.
Dovecote premiered at the 20th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival on Saturday, August 17, 2024.
Dovecote
Cast
Zoe Saldana
Gaia Scodellaro
Marcello Fonte
Director Marco Perago
Writer Marco Perago, Alexander Dinelaris
Cinematographer Javier Julia
Executive Producer Esmeralda Brajovic, Rico Briglio
On our cover, Zoe Saldaña in a scene from Dovecote.
Follow LA ELEMENTS on Instagram and X. Like us on Facebook.
All photography courtesy of HollyShorts Film Festival unless otherwise noted.
No Comments