Interview: Britain-born director reflects on difficulties to be young parents

"I like this story because it is going into the contradiction of our society", said Britain-born film director Roan Johnson on the sideline of the ongoing Venice Film Festival 2016.

"We studied before shooting different scenarios, then we chose to present a story of a couple teenagers expecting a child, then inserting comic elements was the best dramaturgical way to talk about this issue," Johnson told Xinhua in an interview about his movie Piuma in competition at the film festival.

Piuma shows with humor the difficulties of a young couple waiting for a baby in an ordinary Italian city; it will be a sort of initiation not only for the two teenagers but also for their families.

As preparation, the director explained he made many interviews with girls and boys who had children at a very young age."At the end, we relied on what we were feeling, trying to put ourselves in the heads of these 18-years-old youngsters, "Johnson said.

On set then, "We made many rehearsals and I decided to shoot the movie in a non-traditional way, I did one long shot so the actors had to have all the comic rhythm very clear. "Johnson said.

For the director, another important element is human harmony especially in a movie like that and it was essential for his work because he believes in a cinema is made of alchemies.

"Other inspiration elements to insert in the story were coming from experiences by friends and people around us, then I red a lot in the past, I appreciate authors mixing irony and drama, like John Fante or Gianni Celati; this is my DNA and the foundations for my work," Johnson added.

Asked about the difficult economic situation affecting young people in Italy, the director underlines that the precarious working contracts and other job problems are a concrete reality in the country. "You have to consider that we wanted to make a movie and we didn't want to produce a documentary, a sociological essay giving a special message," he said.

According to him, the situation is changed a lot because "when I got my degree I had good hopes to get a good job, now it not like that anymore then it changed also the attitude of having a child," the director said.

"For millions of years having children was the most natural thing, now this is a personal choice bringing to us desires but also fears," he underlined.

Questioned about the role of the financial crisis on this issue, Johnson said "I understand and respect people not wanting to give birth for economic reasons but I prefer to think positive like our young protagonist Ferro, and, as we say in Italy, to "throw my heart over the obstacle". In this difficult situation, I felt the duty to counterpose an optimism of magical poetry."

The director feels that nowadays the fact of giving birth is becoming a very serious matter that people try to postpone for various reasons.

For Johnson, to be in completion in Venice with a comedy is a very rare event but he think there is a kind of snobbish attitude towards comedies therefore he think it is time to stop this mood.

Talking about the contemporary Italian cinema, according Johnson, in the last years it grew stronger and interesting, "we started again to develop the genres and the TV series with new interesting director and actors.After that, there are also more financial resources to do movies and the box office was very good last year," he said.

Asked about if he would like to work abroad, Johnson said, "My father is British and I was born in London therefore even if it would be difficult, I would like to shoot a movie in English." Endit