Tommaso Santambrogio’s Oceans Are the Actual Continents (2023), which opens on a black-and-white shot of an older Cuban girl sweeping her doorway, harking back to the indulgent, and seemingly quotidian scenes in Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma and Wim Wenders’ Excellent Days, is a movie that captures the human situation in all its humor, ache and pleasure. Santambrogio’s debut docudrama characteristic, which premiered at Venice Days in 2023, is a triptych that follows three generations of characters in San Antonio de los Baños, the place time seemingly stands nonetheless.
Entrancingly poetic, Oceans Are the Actual Continents originated as a brief movie directed by Santambrogio in 2019 and bears the identical title. The brief options Alex and Edith—a younger artist couple—who rework their every day routines into expressions of intimacy for the opposite. Within the characteristic, Santambrogio expands on Alex and Edith’s story as they attempt to protect their love whereas nonetheless pursuing their unbiased desires—Alex as a dance trainer in Cuba and Edith as a puppeteer within the means of relocating to Rome, Italy. Intertwined with their story are narratives that includes Milagros, an aged girl who sells peanut cones and spends her days studying letters from a former lover; and Frank and Alain, two nine-year-old boys who dream of emigrating to the U.S. to play for the Yankees.
All performed by non-professional actors, these characters come collectively to share their tales and have fun the small joys of their every day lives whereas additionally dealing with the uncertainty of their futures. Oceans Are the Actual Continents performed at Movie at Lincoln Heart in the course of the annual “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema” collection June 2–6, and is distributed by Fandango and Movie Motion. This interview has been edited for size and readability.
DOCUMENTARY: You’re Italian and made a movie shot in Cuba—how did this come about?
TOMMASO SANTAMBROGIO: Although I’m initially from Northern Italy, I’ve been dwelling between Milan and Cuba since I used to be a baby. My father is related to Cuba, so once I was a baby I grew up in Cuban tradition. The primary time I ever left Italy was to go to Cuba after which I visited each three years. So I’ve grown up in Cuba and have seen the modifications. It’s a rustic that I’m actually hooked up to.
D: I like the concept of getting an adopted tradition—you’re not from someplace or there isn’t any blood line however you are feeling a robust connection. It’s fascinating when somebody shouldn’t be from a spot however they’re nonetheless in a position to really feel that coronary heart and tradition and to deliver it to life on display. I’m curious concerning the perspective you deliver from an outsider’s standpoint.
TS: The one technique to inform a narrative that isn’t your personal story or whenever you’re not from that nation is to be extra open to listening, to be a automobile to the story, and never be the protagonist of that story. These days, cinema focuses on speaking about your self however I believe after some time, it turns into egocentric to speak about your self. There are rising nationalist attitudes and the closing of borders. It’s vital to be open to others, to hear, and to have an anthropological strategy to artwork, and even to life.
Except for my strategy, it was actually vital to satisfy the proper folks—Alexander, Edith, Milagro, and the kids. These are all actually shut mates; we’re form of a household. If I had not met them it might not have been potential to make Oceans. It will have been one other form of film. Though I wrote the movie, we have been continually writing collectively and sharing experiences collectively. We exchanged opinions concerning the characters, took their previous reminiscences, and constructed up their narrative arcs out of their actual experiences.
D: I do know Oceans began off as a brief movie with simply Edith and Alexander. How did you meet them?
TS: I used to be finding out in movie college in Cuba and I had this concept of exploring this theme of separation. I skilled lots of people who left and couldn’t come again. I noticed migration brought on by sports activities, like boxing and baseball.
A Cuban producer launched me to Edith as a result of she had simply damaged up with a boyfriend who left due to this sort of migration and she or he had lots to say about this matter. After we spent the entire day speaking she mentioned, “I need to introduce you to my shut pal Alexander,” after which we spent 3 weeks collectively. Then he took me to satisfy Milagros, who lives throughout from La Casa de la Cultura the place Alexander teaches dance. He took me to have a espresso at Milagros’ home and I learn her actual letters.
D: These are her actual letters that she reads within the movies?
TS: They’re based mostly on actual letters from a former lover, her ex-husband, who she had a child with. A number of the letters have been actually brief or had plenty of references that would not be defined within the movie. However I wrote the movie’s letter after I learn all of her letters and collectively we constructed up their narrative construction.
D: When did you determine to develop Oceans to include the opposite tales and characters?
TS: I had this concept of telling three completely different tales on the subject of separation. Current, previous, and future. I initially shot it with out youngsters however then realized I wanted the kids to inform the story I needed to inform.
D: How did you discover the kids?
TS: Alexander and I solid the kids. It was the one a part of the movie that had solid actors. Nevertheless, casting right here in San Antonio de los Baños, a really small place, is untraditional. We spent two months assembly all varieties of youngsters and operating by playful workouts with them. This helped us measure in the event that they might be comfy with the digicam and different folks.
Alain was very simple to solid as he was the extra extroverted little one character. After I met Frank, though he was very shy, I discovered him to be so cinematic and touching. We did a workshop for six months the place they took baseball classes and dance courses with Alexander and visited all the areas. We might play and create the dynamics collectively. Alain and Frank by no means had an actual script; their scenes have been all based mostly on their reminiscence of what we performed and our experiences spent collectively.
D: I do know these actors are non-professional actors—are you able to communicate to your filming course of?
TS: I wrote the script beforehand with the characters’ enter, however as soon as taking pictures began, I left area for improvising and alter as a result of we have been all so related in what we have been doing we had the liberty with none stress to stay to 1 factor.
With Alexander and Edith, we wrote collectively so that they have been dwelling and appearing as they have been writing. With Milagros, we centered on the physique and her actions and actions. To me, she represents the physique of Cuba. We labored on her tempo, actions, relationship with the home and the prepare station. It was extra of a performative angle. With the kids, they by no means learn the script so it was about creating the dynamics in the proper approach by reminiscence and video games.
It was actually vital that they might be pure and spontaneous. I wasn’t keen on imposing my phrases of their mouths. I needed them to be free to specific themselves in the way in which they’d usually react and speak. It was the identical with Edith and Alexander, but it surely was a bit completely different as a result of they’re artists and naturally extra acutely aware of their actions.
D: It’s fascinating since you’re taking actual folks, actual tales however then dramatizing it slightly bit. I do know you come from a documentary background and Oceans is taken into account a docudrama.
TS: I see Oceans just like what the French name fiction du réel—fiction of actuality. It’s fascinating to do this sort of cinema as a result of we live on this new society the place synthetic intelligence takes up a lot area and the borders between what’s actual and never actual are so skinny. To get again to actuality you’ll be able to’t begin from your personal thoughts, it’s essential to take what’s actual and inform a narrative that’s actually needed. That’s why I bought into documentaries within the first place. I like fiction and experimental cinema, however nonetheless the experimentation in documentaries is admittedly essentially the most fascinating a part of cinema these days.
D: Who’re a few of your filmmaker influences?
TS: I’ve so many filmmakers who’ve impressed me in some ways. Rising up, early Italian cinema and Neorealism was an enormous affect, with administrators like Pasolini, Antonioni, Rossellini. These days, I like Miguel Gomes, who works between documentary and fiction. I used to be at Cannes final week and was actually shocked, in a constructive approach, that administrators like Jia Zhangke, an iconic Chinese language director, have been engaged on documentaries with the intention to create that fiction story in a brand new and completely different approach. So many masters are getting again to that perspective.
D: You shot your early brief movies your self, which is frequent for documentary filmmakers. Nevertheless, for Oceans you collaborated with cinematographer Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci. Did you want sharing the digicam?
TS: He’s actually a grasp, Lorenzo. He studied in Cuba and had labored on plenty of documentaries previous to Oceans. We first collaborated on a mid-length docudrama final yr referred to as Taxibol which premiered at Telluride in 2023. We cut up up the filming and for the primary time, I began to let go. I used to be used to having the digicam in my fingers and controlling the lighting and aesthetic, however trusting somebody who can provide you much more than you are able to do is wonderful. I like the collective means of filmmaking. Having the proper folks is crucial a part of the film.
D: It’s uncanny as a result of although components are fictionalized, Edith really does transfer to Italy so these actors are experiencing actual issues earlier than they even occur within the movie. Do you suppose this had an affect in your actors?
TS: So a lot of our characters have been really within the means of leaving Cuba whereas we have been filming. Edith left for Italy a day after taking pictures. She was really doing the identical embassy course of that she goes by within the movie, in actual life. There was a lot cinéma vérité. It was getting extra painful for all the actors throughout taking pictures as a result of they have been digging up what they have been feeling previously and doing a psychoanalysis of what they have been dwelling by.
Amy Omar is a Turkish-American author and filmmaker dwelling in NYC. She has contributed to publications resembling Display Slate, Brooklyn Rail, Markaz Evaluate, and Electrical Literature. Her movies have screened at SXSW and numerous movie festivals worldwide. You’ll find her on-line at amyomar.com.