Premiering at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in the Horizons sidebar (where it was awarded Best Director and Best Actress), Tiza Covi and Rainer Frimmel‘s latest film Vera is a unique hybrid docu-fiction portrait of actress Vera Gemma, daughter of famed Spaghetti Western star Giuliano Gemma. Exploring the darker side of nepotism in an industry which unfortunately rewards superficial tendencies, Vera’s origins have allowed for a certain livelihood but also has been her albatross. Through semi-autobiographical flourishes, she plays herself in a narrative which further blurs the lines of reality.
I spoke with directors Tiza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, as well as star Vera Gemma to discuss Vera, Austria’s official submission in the category of Best International Feature for the 96th Academy Awards. Gemma speaks on her experiences which crafted the project while Covi and Frimmel also generously discuss details about the project’s origins and their filmmaking process.
Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.
