There are stories that arise from silence, grow in the shadows and then explode in a light that cannot be ignored. “Lux Santa” It is one of those stories. A story that is not limited to being looked at, but that makes itself felt under the skin, as a beat that you cannot stop. Tomorrow at 20.45, at the San Nicola Cinema in Cosenza, that light will turn on for the first time in Calabria, and with her the voice of her architect: Matteo Russo.
Born in 1992, born in CrotoneRusso brings his first director’s feature film to the big screen, enthusiastically welcomed by critics and already selected at the Turin Film Festival and the Italian Showcase of Cannesdocs 2023.
Fondo Jesus is a difficult neighborhood of Crotone. Burn of young lives and ancient traditions. «Lux Santa» tells the millennial tradition of the fires of Santa Lucia in this district, but it is not simply a documentary: It is a journey between fragile hopes, indestructible friendships and that strength that arises from the need to resist. It is the story of a ritual that keeps the threads of broken existences together, cooking a fabric of light, ash, hope. The light of Santa Lucia, yes, but also what its boys, teenagers with eyes full of pain and broken dreams, stubbornly seek between the alleys and within themselves. In a world that seems to have abandoned them build, piece by piece, a pyramid that challenges gravity, which burns like a cry of hope.
The film was made with the collaboration of Rai Cinema and the support of the Calabria Film Commission Foundation, with Anton Giulio Grande driving, the director Luciano Vigna and Giampaolo Calabrese as a tireless project manager, capable of believing in the vision of a young talent of Calabria And to translate it into reality. And then there is Pino Citrigno, president of the Anec Calabria and Anima button of the San Nicola cinema, a place that has been hosting the magic of cinema for years, transforming every projection into an event, every viewer into an accomplice.
We met the filmmaker who started his professional path at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and then form further in Los Angeles and the New York Film Academy, and, after years of experience between video clips, advertising and short films, he created the his first feature film.
What prompted you to tell the tradition of the fires of Santa Lucia and the neighborhood of Crotone Fondo Jesus, through “Lux Santa”?
“A little was born from the need to tell a piece of the years between my childhood and my adolescence because I too was doing the” fires of Santa Lucia “. Together with Carlo Gallo, the author with whom I wrote subject and script, we wanted to preserve this tradition, because during the pandemic, when the film was born, we realized that the tradition of fires was totally losing. And shooting “Lux Santa” seemed to us to leave a testimony to the city. Then we met the basic boys and the film also took another fold ».
You defined it as a work in the balance between documentary and narration. How did you work to maintain the balance between reality and fiction?
«I followed reality, the stories narrated are totally real. What we listen to from the hearts of the boys derives from them. We have never written a script including dialogues, there were only places, themes and people, not characters. A little staging derives from the gaze that I then decided to put inside the film, from the narrative part ».
The tradition of the fires of Santa Lucia is a ritual that speaks of union and hope. Do you think your film can help preserve this tradition for future generations?
“I think so. It was pointed out that since we started shooting, it was a bit like rekindling interest. And for two years the tradition of the fires of Santa Lucia has taken more and more foot, so much so that events around popular tradition have been created. I like to think that in the slightest part the film has rekindled in these guys, in the neighborhoods, in the city, a more close sense of belonging around the fires ».
You collaborated with the Calabria Film Film Commission and Rai Cinema for this project. How important were their support for the making of the film?
«I am grateful to the producers Orazio Guarino and Marco Santoro who believed in the project from the beginning, since he was a subject written on a page. Then the intervention of the Calabria Film Film Commission and Rai Cinema turned on the hope that the film could be made. And it was precious and stimulating also in artistic terms. Without them, today we would not be here to talk about “Lux Santa” ».
Looking at your personal journey, from Crotone to international cinema, how do you feel that “Lux Santa” represents your link with Calabria?
«Since my first short film I have always told Calabria, my city, my land. “Lux Santa” is part of a path that I will continue, a journey through the memories of my childhood and the deep bond with this region that has grown me. Today I chose to go back and live there, and for me this is a fundamental piece, not a point of arrival in my young career as an author, but a starting point. I want to continue to explore these places, tell them and offer a different narrative of Calabria, far from the usual prejudices. I think it is necessary to show a new Calabria, that of boys like Luca, young people raised on the margins of society but with a strong desire for redemption. A Z generation that wants to change things, reverse the course. Although in “Lux Santa” the theme of crime and prison is present, the true fulcrum of history is the dream of these guys to build a different future. I am sure that everything I will make in the future will always be linked to my land. Calabria is rich in stimuli, inspires me continuously and is a land that deserves to be told ».