Two different but equally vital factors characterize the filming of “Unnatural”. The first is the creation of a bond of empathy with the protagonist. The development of Giacomo’s character is of utmost importance. Giacomo is a son of the wild countryside, a natural element and an element of nature at the same time. He is an uncontrollable entity moving in a timeless world. Those who have known woodcutters or seen them at work, who have frequented them and above all who have had the chance to observe them, realize they are not ordinary men. And for me, the challenge is to succeed in portraying the very essence of these men’s characters. The second factor is revealing the link with man’s innate animality: his continual swaying back and forth between life and death in a space sometimes defined and sometimes undefined, be it the forest, the brush, the wilderness, the marshes, the river, the sea and so on, unto infinity . . . Francesca is attracted to Giacomo and to what he personifies. Fully aware of the risk she is taking, she is however still ready to play her cards to the very end. Francesca’s character is in full evolution and we perceive her actual physical mutation as the story unfolds. Although completely extraneous to Giacomo’s world, her real desire to become familiar with it and enter it succeeds in creating a perfect symbiosis with him and what he represents, even though the man and woman belong to opposite seasons: he to autumn and she to springtime.
(Director’s notes)