Sodankylä morning discussion: Alice Rohrwacher with Peter von Bagh

"6.00 in the morning in Sodankylä. Alice Rohrwacher sings her own song near the river, [together with the Cleaning Women trio]. And suddenly I realize that I've never heard anything so beautiful. Because she is a truly friend of beauty. Watch Le meraviglie (THE WONDERS)." Photo: Boris Nelepo. From Boris Nelepo's Facebook page, 15 June 2014, by permission.

The discussion was conducted in English. The School, Sodankylä, Midnight Sun Film Festival, 13 June 2014

The résumé at The Midnight Sun Film Festival site:

"“It all began when I got to know a circus family. I didn’t know any circus tricks so I had to find some other way to join them”, Alice Rohrwacher says. That other way she found in cinema. She created her first documentary film, Un piccolo spettacolo (2005), by doing, daring and experimenting."

"Friday got its start at Midnight Sun Film Festival with morning discussions with two self-made directors. Film guru Olaf Möller interviewed Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski (born 1957), who turned to fiction from BBC’s documentary department, and the Italian-German Alice Rohrwacher (born 1982), who just won the Cannes Grand Prix with her new film The Wonders."

"Rohrwacher is also led by intuition in her filmmaking. That is also why she shoots on film. “When you shoot on film, you have an idea of what you are shooting, but you do not know everything that will end up in the take. It is about the meeting of the filmmaker and the subject. As it is in life or any encounter, you can not know or control everything. But when you shoot on digital, you can modify everything later.”"

"When it comes to staying real and true, Rohrwacher makes no compromises. For her film Corpo celeste, she went through every church in the city to find the one that was right for the film."

"“My beekeeper father taught me that when the flowers are in bloom, then it is time to leave. You can not know it by looking at a clock”, Alice Rohrwacher reflects. To her filmmaking and life are one and the same." (The résumé at The Midnight Sun Film Festival site).