Italian prolific Marco Perego, who recently appeared on the Cannes red carpet as producer of Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner Fjord and Grand Prix winner Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, is on a mission to foster “cooperation in cultural expression” at a time when, in his words, independent cinema is “under threat”.
In addition to supporting this year’s two Cannes Grand Prize winners, Perego, a visual artist, director, former professional soccer player and husband of Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña, also joined the Croisette as part of the production team for James Gray’s outstanding competition feature Paper Tiger and Kantemir Balagov’s Directors’ Fortnight opener Butterfly Jam through his production company Reef Entertainment, in collaboration with producer Michael Serenzi.
And Perego is backing four more titles likely to hit the festival circuit soon, including second feature Petrichor, co-written with Alexander Dinelaris (Birdman) and starring Valeria Golino, Isabella Rossellini and Tommaso Ragno. He will be editing the film in the coming weeks at Rome’s Cinecittà studio, where Saldaña is filming Netflix’s romantic film Positano, co-starring Matthew McConaughey.
Meanwhile, Perego’s latest art installation, “The Being,” is on display at the Center Pompidou-Metz in France. Taking cues from other notable artists of the past, Perego has published a “Declaration of a Creative Community Rooted in Purpose” and plans to apply it to the international film community. “By protecting each other, we find greater freedom. The more we support each other, the braver we are,” reads the first board of the manifesto.
Below, Perego speaks to Variety about his drive to help make meaningful films.
What drives your efforts to support writers and connect them?
The idea is to support a director with a vision, like Christian and Andrei, or (their) producers Pascal Costeau and Charles Gilibert, and protect that vision. That was never my vision. And if their vision doesn’t succeed in the market, I want to be there to protect them. I think it’s a great principle to start talking about communities and groups. What will happen to the film industry in the next five years with new inputs from AI? What will happen to these writers? When you watch “Fjord” or “Minotaur,” you’re not just watching a movie, you’re opening yourself up to a whole conversation about the human condition.
My understanding is that you’re trying to establish a collective where artists can actually come together and discuss things. am I right?
yes. The first step is that we’ve been so lucky to work with these incredibly visionary directors and producers. The results were surreal. But what’s more important to me is that we can all come together now and talk about where we are right now. For me, it’s important how we take the opportunity to talk about culture. It’s a very strange moment for an independent film. We need to think about how we can come together and build this collective.
Let’s talk about yourself as a filmmaker. I know about your first feature, 2024’s Absence of Eden. Martin Scorsese served as executive producer and starred Saldaña as an illegal immigrant fighting to escape a ruthless cartel. What else have you been up to since then?
In the same year, I made a short film called Dovecote, about the inmates of the Giudecca women’s prison in Venice’s Lagoon, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award and presented at the Venice Biennale of Visual Arts as part of the Vatican Pavilion. I wrote this piece with Alexander Dinelaris, who worked on Digger and Birdman and is my mentor. Now I shot a film written by Alex called “Petrichor” with Valeria Golino, Isabella Rossellini and Tommaso Ragno. It was shot in 35mm by the great cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan). I have started editing. It was filmed in the Lake Garda area where I grew up. This is an introspective story. My mother lost her voice for 3 years in 2004. This is a portrait of a woman who has lost her voice. It’s a journey to get her voice back. Valeria Golino is a great actor, so it was great to work with her.
Valeria Golino plays your mother, right?
Yes, Isabella plays a doctor who is like a speech therapist. But I’m also rooting for Lucretia Martel and Philippe Parreno’s new film Riverrun and Dinelaris’ directorial debut Still Life, in which I’ll be one of the actors. What’s important to me is to tell filmmakers and producers: “I’m here. I want to help. I want to support you. I take this very seriously.”
