What does A’Mare mean?

Well, if you spell it as a single word, Amare means “to love” in Italian. But the way I spell it in the Sicilian dialect, A’Mare means “a man in a sea.” The story for me is about love as expressed by the friendship between the two boys. It also is the story of the sea, a story of a man overboard.

What inspired this story?

I wanted to make a film that would merge my childhood memories as an Italian growing up on the Mediterranean Sea with my passion for the water. I wanted to tell a simple story with only two characters in one location. So I chose two boys in the middle of the sea.

What part of Italy was it shot? It was shot in Aeolians Islands , the seven very small volcanic islands just north of Sicily . This is a very strong fishermen community. It is very difficult to get there because the sea and the wind dominate everything. This is a place where Roberto Rossellini did the film Stromboli and Michelangelo Antonioni made the film Avventura. So for me it was like a homage to Italian neo-realistic filmmakers.

How did you cast the children?

I put together eight kids that I picked up from different islands and worked with them for about a week. I was basically just observing their reaction to my basic idea and their original and natural behavior. And also their relationship with the sea because that was very important. It was probably the most difficult thing for me to choose two kids for the film. The two leading actors in the movie are actually from a fishermen community that is like a ghetto in the islands. And all these two kids cared about was fishing. And on the last day they invited me on their small boat to go fishing. It was a big gesture of trust since having a woman on a boat is considered bad luck.

Did the kids improvise or did they strictly follow their lines?

They had lines to say, but rather than give them lines, I tried to trigger emotions in them. At the end I realized that it’s much better that they are not pretending. And they even caught a fish in the film, which was completely improvised. I did not plan for that. I think they completely understood their characters and they have a natural dynamic in their relationship because they are friends.

Where does the man in a sea come from?

In the film he comes from Morocco . I was looking for the third element that would trigger the dynamic. I realized it needed to be something very unlikely, yet possible. In the area between Sicily and Africa , there is a huge amount of illegal immigrants dying in the attempt to reach the shore. They either die on the boat because there is no food and water supply or they jump in the water to escape the police and they drown. But I also was trying to create a sense of magical realism. It is very symbolic to me--two boys dragging the nearly dead man through the water. My father was a sailor and I spent a lot of time on the sea with my sister. It was extremely magical when you are very young to be able to drive the boat and see your father very proud of you. My father passed away.  So for me the image if these boys letting go of this man is the idea of letting go. I did not explain it in the film but that was my emotional motivation to tell this story.

Did you thrive to make a very authentic Italian film?

Yes. It was definitely my intention. What I miss the most about my country, having lived in London for 13 years, is the sea. And also the community where two boys are coming from is disappearing. I doubt that in 50 years it will still be there. The local fishermen spend the night out risking their lives and making no money. They can’t fish with the net anymore and they can’t sell the fish privately to restaurants as they use to do. The whole fishing culture is changing. But the Mediterranean Sea for me is the heart of Italy . And these islands are quite untouched. And it was important for me to do the film in the  Sicilian dialect. It is a very beautiful language and it is also disappearing. So, in that sense, this film is completely Italian.

The cinematography of the underwater scenes is exquisite. Tell us about the experience of shooting underwater.

It was shot underwater by a free diver named Fabio Ferioli. So it was done with no oxygen tanks. It was difficult, yet I was very firm about not using the oxygen tanks, because the moment you start to use them, it's like using a tripod. But this film to me called for a hand-held camera. I wanted the naturalistic approach so it was the only way to do it. I really love to film in the water because it is a way for me to bring out magic without having to use special effects. As you go under water, you immediately lose the sense of gravity and the sounds change, so you can really play with it. The way we approached it in A’Mare is to try to keep the camera where the boys were.