Bertani Sisters Locarno Interview, Powerpuff Girls

You can find several animal-related titles in the competition lineup of the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. Donkey Days and White Snail have already had their world premieres, and on Tuesday afternoon, it is time for the debut of Mosquitoes (Le Bambine).

The movie, directed by sisters Valentina Bertani, who previously directed the documentary The Crown Shyness, and Nicole Bertani, is about young sisterhood and more.

”1997: eight-year-old Linda drifts away from her wealthy grandmother’s Swiss villa with her carefree mother Eva. In Italy, she meets Azzurra and Marta,” reads the synopsis for the film. “A summer bond unites the three girls in a gang formed to protect each other, their youth, and their freedom. Around them swirl selfish parents chasing fragile dreams, gossiping neighbors, and a queer babysitter searching for belonging in a homophobic world.”

Viewers will immediately notice an energy mindful of animated content. A constantly moving camera and saturated colors not only take us back to the ‘90s. “The irregular and unexpected trajectories of the POV don’t allow the viewer to indulge in passive enjoyment,” the sister duo says in a directors’ statement.

They wrote the screenplay, inspired by their own childhood experiences, together with Maria Sole Limodio. The ensemble cast features Mia Ferricelli, Agnese Scazza, Petra Scheggia, Clara Tramontano, Milutin Dapčević, Jessica Piccolo Valerani, Cristina Donadio, and Matteo Martari. Intramovies is handling international sales.

The two Bertani sisters both have a range of creative experiences. Valentina’s The Crown Shyness screened at Venice and was nominated for five David di Donatello awards. She has also directed music videos for Ligabue, Negramaro, and The Kolors, and TV ads for Gucci, Valentino, and Toyota. Nicole works as a creative director, graphic designer, and film director. She has worked with publishing groups and such brands as Bvlgari, Seletti, and Gucci. Mosquitoes is her feature directorial debut.

The Bertani sisters discussed with THR the inspirations for the movie, including The Powerpuff Girls, casting their three young leads, bringing back the brothers featured in The Crown Shyness for the film, its unique visual style, and what may be next for them.

“It’s a very personal story,” Valentina explained. “We lived that experience in 1997 – me, Nicole, and our best friend. We didn’t understand some of the mysteries as the adults around us, our parents and others in the neighborhood, weren’t able to tell us the truth” about such things as the drug addiction of an adult in the neighborhood.

The gay babysitter Carlino featured in the film is also based on the sisters’ babysitter. “He was a gay man in 1997, which, for our street and for the neighborhood, was an incredible thing, because it was very rare for Italy back then,” she highlighted.

How did this first feature film writing and directing collaboration between the sisters work? “We have the same references,” explained Nicole. “We watched the same films, so we are on the same page. But also, we have different skills. So, yes, sometimes, we fight, because we are sisters, but not on set, of course. But most of the time, we completely agree on everything. Also, Valentina has more experience than me in directing, but she was always with me and listened to me, so it was a great experience.”

Valentina enjoyed the experience too, calling Nicole humble. “She is a great, great art director and creative director,” she said. “She created all the graphics in our feature, and it’s very important for the visual identity.”

The sisters shared visual references on fashion and other things to get the look and style of the movie right. Colors play a key role here. “We worked a lot on the color palette,” shared Nicole. “The colors are more related to the characters. For example, Eva is red because she’s dangerous. For the kids, we used the colors of The Powerpuff Girls,” namely blue, pink, and green. “We also have a reference to [anime series] Sailor Moon in the film.”

That explains the film’s often animated energy that makes it feel like an animated movie at times. Its storyboard looks like a comic book, the sisters shared, highlighting their love for graphic novels. “We have read a lot of graphic novels, so we are probably very influenced by that,” notes Valentina.

The sisters saw a lot of girls, around 600, in the casting process to find their three leads with the right kind of energy for each character. For example, the search for the actress to play Linda narrowed down to three, “because it was very difficult to find girls who had that personality of a porcupine,” Valentina recalled. Porcupine? Come again? “I mean cute, but also very dangerous,” Valentina explained.

Young Mia Ferricelli ended up hitting all the right notes, including with her attitude. Her audition tape puzzled the sisters because the girl showed off and discussed the windows of her home. “We don’t know why, but she said, ‘This is the first window. This is the second window, and I can open it like this’,” shared Valentina. “So we asked her to do another tape, and she did and said in it: ‘Okay, directors, I have made this video again. I don’t know why the first one wasn’t okay for you’.”

Meanwhile, Agnese Scazza, who plays Azzurra, showed up for the callback “screaming, ‘I’m Azzurra. No one is more Azzurra than me,’” Valentina recalled. “We said, ‘Okay, we can choose you, but please, can you run around in the flat?’ I don’t know why, but a lot of actors can’t run or walk in any other way [when asked to do so].”

The sisters also cast Petra Scheggia as Marta. They met at a screening of Valentina’s doc The Crown Shyness about Marta’s uncles Benjamin and Joshua Israel, identical twins with a learning disability who also play roles in Mosquitoes. Petra told the directors that she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her uncles and be in a movie. But initially, she was too young and had difficulty learning lines and concentrating on set for longer periods. As the casting process continued, the directors brought her back, and she walked in, saying she was ready now and itching to prove it. And, the director sisters agreed, she nailed it!

While the sisterhood of the three girls in the film and the characters they can really relate to have first names, all other characters are simply called The Father, The Mother, The Neighbor, and so on. “That is because they are kinds of stereotypes,” explained Valentina. “They are like the fathers and mothers of the ’90s. All the people who saw our movie said ‘Oh, my God, this guy is the same kind of father I had!’”

Fans of the Bertani sisters can expect more collaborations from them. “We love working together,” whether it is film, a book, or something else, says Nicole. “So yes, we will do something together again.” Stay tuned!