Directed by Sämen
Watch the short film that swept The People’s Film Festival 2021, taking home 4 awards including: Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Drama.
Visually exploring the emotional complexity of a breakup, Rumori has at its core how the lack of understanding and communication between two people can destroy a relationship. Introspective, subtle and beautifully melancholic, the short film stands as a summary of the endless conversations and sleepless nights experienced as two people gradually drift apart and disappear from each other's minds.
Set in a house in the Italian countryside, we find the characters in the film, played by Andrea Arcangeli and Matilda De Angelis, stuck in a loop of internal arguments. They share the same space, yet they are unable to see and perceive one another. They live for each other, yet they are blind to each other's needs. Feeling trapped and alone within this space, the house becomes a metaphor for their stagnant and decaying relationship.
As a true reflection of our world, Rumori argues that to stand still is to disappear. The only way out of a toxic dynamic is to embrace change, transform and move forward.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKER
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
As childhood best friends, we loved watching horror films. But growing up in Milan, Italy, we found that people valued beauty and style over grim and gore. Suffice it to say, our parents were less than enthusiastic about this newfound obsession and demanded we give it up. So, like the good boys that we were, we obeyed our doting parents, stopped watching them…and started making them instead.
After years of splattering ketchup over some very forgiving friends and family, we determined that it was time to abandon the confines of our upbringing and pursue our love of filmmaking with abandon. We subsequently started to travel the world shooting ads.
What was the inspiration behind Rumori?
We have lived, in our recent life, two important relationships, the end of which happened almost at the same time, and this meant a long period of personal transformation. Rumori is the outcome of countless discussions and exchange of ideas through sleepless nights, summer holidays and work trips. It is also the recap of our most introspective, peculiar, melancholy moments; they’ve been so beautiful we’ve decided to define them. This film is also the result of a debate based on common experiences which may, eventually, mean something.
What was it like to bring this film to life and what obstacles did you overcome along the way?
It was simply beautiful, we finally felt like real filmmakers and not performers in the advertising world. The only obstacles were just ourselves, since we had no one to blame for creativity, storyline and such, we constantly questioned if we made the right choices but the result is simply the representation of what we are, sincere in making mistakes, as the cinema needs to be.
Any hacks or tips for making a short film?
First focus on the idea and then add the context, we often put more attention to the visual power of cinema over the communication. If you got a gimmick, that’s the starting point where you can build everything else.
What's your favourite part of the filmmaking process?
Shooting! as directors we spend most of our time at home, writing treatments, loosing pitches and starting all over again, then once in while we are lucky to spend some time on set, and if you did a well done pre-production, you just need to do the magic and enjoy the unexpected.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
Sadly our short barely made it to real audience, we mean the people sat on a cinema armchair, it was a sad year due to the virus but we are really glad film festivals like yours kept going on and gave the audience the quality they deserve.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
“Sound of Metal” by Darius Marder, indie style that made it to the Oscars. “Blind Spot” by Tuva Novotny, it’s about a mother’s struggle to understand her teenage daughter’s crisis. “NEVRLAND” by Gregor Schmidinger, shows the process of sexual awakening and self-discovery of a young boy.