PODCAST |Matt Micucci interviews Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman, directors of the film Californie.
A conversation with Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman, co-directors of Californie, presented at the Giornate degli Autori strand of the 78th Venice Film Festival. They talk with us about the origins of their creative partnership and the work on this film, which marks their scripted feature debut. Both come from a reportage and documentary background, which served them well on this project. They also share the story of how they met Jamila, the young Moroccan-born protagonist living in Torre Annunziata in Italy, who is the protagonist of Californie.
Californie : Jamila is an exuberant Moroccan girl with street smarts, who seems to have enormous potential to achieve great things – or else trigger mega-disasters. Californie follows her day in and day out from age 9 to 14, in the small town in southern Italy where she lives, to reconstruct the fascinating personal journey Jamila undertakes – setbacks and detours included – to find her place in the world.