THE PARADISE

“Paradise is completely personal. That doesn't mean it's autobiographical, but it's inspired by the relationship I had with my mother. Homeland refers to the father, and you use it when you talk about your country in a “patriotic” way, which immediately refers to the military, nationalism and patriarchy. However, when you say motherland, it is a strange word that means “mother-father.” I have always felt like someone displaced. I was born in Rome, but my whole family comes from Sicily. For me, this complicated relationship with the motherland has always been a source of doubts and questions. That is another thing that makes me feel closer to Julio's character, because he is Colombian, even though he was born in Italy and has never been to Colombia. He was displaced before he was born. One of the reasons I wanted to make this film was to portray a strong bond that can easily turn into oppression. If you want to keep this bond as idealized as possible, you have to do it in your own world; you have to build your own world. Therefore, I imagined that this mother had instinctively built a house and a world around the house, to live in a bubble that could somehow protect this quiet and strange relationship. She didn't want it to be an obvious prison, but rather a kind of gilded cage.”