“Other side of fame”, interview with director Erik Bernard and actress Sveva Alviti

Presented as a world premiere at the ninth edition of Filming Italy Sardegna Festival 2026, “Other Side of Fame” is directed by Erik Bernard and stars Sveva Alviti in the role of Rachel, a young woman whose life changes during the Cannes Film Festival after a romantic encounter with an elusive American forces her to choose between the allure of fame and the promise of real love. The film arrives at the festival with the Women Power Award going to Sveva Alviti, in recognition of a career built around giving voice to women’s stories.

A film about the choices we hope to have the courage to make

For Erik Bernard, “Other Side of Fame” was born out of conversations he had in Cannes with aspiring actors navigating the risks and consequences of chasing a career in the spotlight. “It is about a woman who makes a hard choice and has to find her way back to where she started, and in the middle of all that, the hardest choice is love.” From that starting point, the story grew around a question that feels particularly relevant today: what does it mean to want to be famous, and can fame and love ever truly coexist?

An Instagram message that became a film

The collaboration between Erik Bernard and Alviti started in an unexpected way. His publicist, who had previously worked with Sveva Alviti on “Dalida”, suggested her name when Erik Bernard was looking for a European actress fluent in French. He reached out to her on Instagram, not the most conventional of beginnings. “Usually, when you have this kind of connection on Instagram, it’s not real”, Sveva Alviti admits, “but I gave him a chance because what he wrote was very deep.” After reading the script in two hours, she knew she wanted to do it. Erik Bernard, for his part, quickly discovered she would bring “value and depth to the character” that went well beyond what he had imagined.

A stubborn, strong and sometimes fragile woman

What drew Sveva Alviti to Rachel was the complexity of the role and the weight of its message. “There is a message about the power men can have and how they play with your dreams.” Rachel, she explains, shares something with Sveva Alviti herself: stubbornness, strength, and moments of fragility. The character goes through a great deal before finding her moment, and that journey, for Alviti, is what makes the story worth telling. Every role she chooses, she says, comes with a purpose: “I want to communicate something that stays.”

The Women Power Award and a career built around women’s voices

Receiving the Women Power Award on the same night as the world premiere of “Other Side of Fame” felt to Sveva Alviti like a natural alignment. “I always choose characters where I can give voice to women or stories that don’t have one.” Beyond acting, she is now also directing her own documentaries about women, a path that Tiziana Rocca recognized and wanted to celebrate, honoring not just the film but the vision behind an entire career.

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