Filming has already started for the feature film Girasoli (Sunflowers,) a work that marks the behind-the-camera debut of actress Catrinel Marlon. The film, inspired by a true story that touched the director and her family members closely, was written by Marlon herself with Francesca Nozzolillo and Heidrun Schleef. In the 1960s, an impossible love between two girls is born by chance within the walls of a psychiatric hospital, more like a prison than a mental institution. Playing the leads are Gaia Girace, Mariarosaria Mingione, Monica Guerritore , Pietro Ragusa and Rodica Lazar.
The technical cast features Fabio Zamarion as director of photography, Tonino Zera on set design, Nicoletta Ercole on costumes, Massimo Quaglia on editing and Cesare Cremonini on music. Produced by Massimiliano Di Lodovico for Masi Film with Joseph Rouschop for Gapbuster, Cristian Mungiu for Mobra Film, and Lumina MGR Girasoli is an Italy, Belgium, Romania co-production and will be distributed by Europictures.
Catrinel Marlon said, "I decided to tell this story because it touched me closely. With this film I want to remember how asylums were tremendous places of suffering and imprisonment but also how among hundreds of broken and forgotten lives a beautiful love story can be born."
Catrinel Marlon to direct Girasoli with Gaia Girace
