02/02/2024 - Filming has kicked off on the Italian director’s new movie, which is an innovative and experimental docu-comedy about a search for meaning inspired by a failure

A ferry, four characters and a voice embark on a journey. These are the images marking the first clapperboard slamming on Marko Polo, the new movie by Elisa Fuksas who kicked off filming yesterday in Ancona.

Fuksas’ filmography consists of fiction films – namely her 2012 debut Nina [+see also:
trailer
interview: Elisa Fuksas
film profile] and The App [+see also:
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film profile] from 2019 – and documentaries, the most recent of which, Senza fine [+see also:
trailer
film profile], was treated to a Special Screening in Venice’s 2021 Giornate degli Autori line-up. Marko Polo is an innovative project which anticipates certain parts of the film being shot as if scripted and others as purely documentarian, real moments from a long and mysterious journey lasting from dusk until dawn. As the ship lurches from side to side, as if a perpetual metaphor for the precariousness of everything, the protagonists tackle life’s bigger questions.

This docu-comedy relies on an ensemble cast: Iaia Forte (The King of Laughter [+see also:
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“It’s an experiment”, the director explains, “into the search for meaning inspired by a failure, which is mysteriously capable of mending the faith and faithfulness between reality and representation, and between the protagonist and the world. I’m still looking for a road forwards, a way to be myself and Christian, and of being in the world”.

Cinematography on Marko Polo comes courtesy of Emanuele Zarlenga, editing will be carried out by Michelangelo Garrone, and Lucia Votoni is responsible for costumes. The film is produced by independent firm Indiana Production (belonging to the European Vuelta Group), who recently offered up Lubo [+see also:
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interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile] by Giorgio Diritti and Dieci minuti [+see also:
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film profile] by Maria Sole Tognazzi, and who also co-produced the Sky series Unwanted – directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel – in co-production with Germany’s Pantaleon Films.

(Translated from Italian)