Index Zero

Directed by Lorenzo Sportiello

“A couple illegally enters the United States of Europe. Here, an ‘Index of Sustainability’ is given to every citizen, calculated on their personal productivity and wellbeing. Eve is pregnant and as such is ‘not sustainable’ and must be expelled.” – director Lorenzo Sportiello

GFM:
In Index Zero, the sustainability index measures a human’s right to live and be free. Can you talk about the parallels you see between the film and the world we live in today.

Lorenzo:
For me, Sci-Fi is obviously a chance to talk about the modern world with the future metaphor. Above all it is a way to talk about what it means to be human. I’m from Italy and I live daily with what is happening in Lampedusa. It is an inhuman and inconcealable issue. We shot the prison scenes in an actual Bulgarian detention center for illegal immigrants from the East, funded by UE. Hungary is considering building a wall at the Serbian border.

Nowadays, ‘the sustainability’ is a mantra in our leaders’ speeches, not the happiness or wellbeing of the citizens. The fact that the people are blaming the poor for their increasing poverty must be considered as the masterpiece of the dominant class.

GFM:
Would you say that Index Zero is a warning or a prediction about the future?

Lorenzo:
As I said, it is exactly what is going to happen right now. I didn’t want to focus on a prediction of a possible future, I just bent the present a little. Everything in Index Zero is already in our society, maybe in an initial form. For me, this is not a dystopian movie, but a story about how dystopian the present is. I see Index Zero as a neorealist movie, not a sci-fi one.

GFM:
You have an extensive background in short films and commercials. Can you talk about your journey to making your first feature film?

Lorenzo:
I studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the National Film School in Rome. Since then I’ve done everything, EVERYTHING! Music videos, commercials, documentaries, TV, even soft porno clips. This is not a job for posers, you must avidly shoot everything that is in front of your camera. By the way, in Italy it is not easy to convince a producer to make a sci-fi movie, so I convinced him by saying that genre movies are easier to sell than the average Italian film.

GFM:
IMDB lists the film’s budget at just $500,000. Can you talk about some of the techniques that you used to achieve a high production value on a relatively low budget?

Lorenzo:
The most important factor was a highly motivated and talented crew. There are many of them in Italy, waiting for the right chance to show their skills. We had enormous production troubles, so I personally did a lot of things by myself, such as the CGI effects and the soundtrack. This movie is literally handcrafted by a few artists working together. Trust me, it was almost a no-budget movie, that’s why I’m proud when someone doesn’t notice all the struggle in the picture.

GFM:
Speaking about music and your role in the soundtrack, is music and cinema a passion of yours?

Lorenzo:
Yes of course, I always wanted to be a rock star. To be a film director is obviously my plan B!

GFM:
When you’re a filmmaker you control the whole world so you can do what you want, right?

Lorenzo:
Yeah exactly! I really enjoy replacing God.

GFM:
You have a wonderful cast with Simon Merrells and Ana Ularu. Simon Merrells is in virtually every scene of the film. Can you talk about your collaboration with him from the beginning and how you developed his character.

Lorenzo:
We worked together for a couple of weeks in pre-production and we focused on how to approach these characters who had very little dialogue. We didn’t even have dialogues to rehearse, so I just worked on the energy between them. They accomplished the really difficult task of delivering emotions and not captions. Ana and Simon are great actors and great human beings. I feel honoured to have worked with them.

GFM:
I read that there were some issues with the funding of the film and you had to do some last minute arrangements to get the film completed. It sounds like there might be an interesting story there so I wanted to ask you about it.

My producer left us for personal reasons when we were editing the film. After a few depressing months, I decided to continue the movie without him. Luckily, I was inspired and supported by my fellow friends and crew. Their talent and professional skills helped me to finish the movie without any money at all. We have done all the post-production process alone.

GFM:
With Index Zero completed and now in film festivals, what are you working on next?

Lorenzo:
I’m shooting a TV crime series for RAI, the Italian national broadcaster. In a month I’ll be finished with that and will then focus on my next feature film.It will be bold, unusual and startling. With Index Zero I proved to myself that I can do this job despite all the difficulties. With my next project I will leave my comfort zone. I promise.