“Demetra in Esilio”, interview with the director Maria Giovanna Cicciari and the producer Raffaella Pontarelli

Demetera in Esilio is one of the four projects supported by Biennale College and screened this year in Venice Film Festival 2026. We talked to the director, Maria Giovanna Cicciari, and the producer, Raffaella Pontarelli  (Amarena Film) after the official screening of the film which is  a contemporary interpretation of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, an original way to speak about mother-daughter and man-nature relationships.

Demetra in Esilio: the potential of an ancient myth

Maria Giovanna Cicciari says that she wrote the first draught of the story 10 years ago  after a trip to Greece and after reading  “Gods in Exiles” by German poet Heinrich Heine, and decided to bring the myth of  Dimiter and Persephone  in Milano after the end of the, of the pagan era.  After 10 years,  she met Raffaella Pontarelli who like the script  and asked her to develop it together.

Raffaella Pontarelli said  what she liked most to tell about the story is the relationship between mother and daughters using the ancient myth and  what she mostly loved was the deepness of the feelings that Maria Giovanni was able to express through the story.

Maria Giovanna Cicciari says she put in Demetera in Esilio all  her past experimental experiences, like  shooting in 16 millimetres, documenting performing arts and dance. In the film there is a 16 millimetre film  that comes from the past but still resonates  in the present of the film.

The Biennale College Experience

Raffaella Pontarelli points ut that Biennale College was a quite intense experience  because they had to pass through several workshops  and a selection process. When they  were selected in November, they had to immediately  start production and they start shooting in April during the Eastern holidays. After that they had other two months of editing,  mixing doing the colour ….

They were granted 200K by Biennale College and had to stick on this budget but they  had the possibility to find  technical partners that helped them in kind, like Movie People and SUBTI.

Overall she defines Demetera in Esilio a very important creative challenge, from which they learn a lot, since they were pushed to find creative solutions to the many difficlties generated by shortage of time and money. Now they are looking for a sales agent and in the meantime, after Venice, the film will be screened  in Fondazione Prada on the 19th of September in Milan.

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