Monte Sant’Angelo, the city with two UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the Gargano peninsula, stars in the new film about Padre Pio (Saint Pius of Pietrelcina), directed by Abel Ferrara, a German/Italian coproduction between Maze (Germany) and Interlinea Film (Italy), with executive production by Francesco Lopez’s Oz Film which is based in Apulia.
Shia LaBeouf, star of the Transformers franchise, plays the saint, supported by a substantial group of Italian actors: Ignazio Oliva (The Young Pope), Brando Pacitto (Baby, Braccialetti Rossi), Marco Leonardi, Luca Lionello, Martina Gatti (SKAM), Carla De Girolamo (Braccialetti Rossi), Alessandro Cremona (007 Spectre), Michelangelo Dalisi (Freaks Out) and Roberta Mattei (Anna, Zero).
Monte Sant’Angelo was the location for the staging of various episodes that took place in 1920 in San Giovanni Rotondo: the first peasant socialist victory repressed with violence and the contemporaneous arrival of Padre Pio in the city, a young monk in the grip of a full-blown mystical crisis who was beginning to manifest his first miracles and receive his first stigmata.
The first locations were the Monastery of San Marco La Catola and the Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano, where the Capuchin monks took an active part in the film as a tribute to Padre Pio. Other locations selected by the production include: the rows of white houses in the historical centre, the Junno quarter, the Church of St. Mary Major, the streets around the Sanctuary of St. Michael Archangel and the so-called Holy Stairs which pilgrims would once climb on their knees in penitence.
The film was presented at a press conference in Monte Sant’Angelo by the director, Abel Ferrara who is American with Italian origins, the town mayor Pierpaolo d’Arienzo and the production.
«Monte Sant’Angelo is a town where one senses the millenary history, whose monuments have a beauty that make it a natural cinema set, one with a great impact,” commented mayor d’Arienzo. “We are delighted to host this important international production, a director like Abel Ferrara and a cast of the highest level and are providing all the necessary support so that they have the best conditions possible to work in our town. The pairing of cinema and the promotion of tourism is a goal that we are investing in a lot”.
“The project began five years ago when I saw the Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano, here in Monte Sant’Angelo” said Abel Ferrara. “From the first minute, I could sense the extraordinary feeling the people here have for this project, I could see the beauty of these places, so our aim was to make a mystical, legendary film that was also true, authentic. I tried to understand the heart, the true spirit of Padre Pio, who he was in his life and his history. We realised that the only way to do that was to search in the place where the story took place”.
The screenplay was written by Abel Ferrara and Maurizio Braucci (whose many successes include Gomorra and Martin Eden) and was inspired by the letters written by Padre Pio and real historical events.
The historical reconstruction of 1920s San Giovanni Rotondo was designed by Tommaso Ortino (Mozart in the jungle), an Italian art director transplanted to New York; the costumes were created by Antonella Cannarozzi, the Apulian designer for the HBO series My Brilliant Friend who was nominated for an Academy Award for her work on Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love; the director of photography is Alessandro Abate.
The film was supported by the Apulia Film Commission which strongly encouraged the filming in the real locations of the story. The entirely Italian production team used a substantial number of professionals from Apulia in all departments.