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You can find several animal-related titles in the competition lineup of the\u00a078th edition\u00a0<\/a>of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival<\/a>. Donkey Days<\/em> and White Snail<\/a><\/em> have already had their world premieres, and on Tuesday afternoon, it is time for the debut of Mosquitoes<\/em> (Le Bambine<\/em>).<\/p>\n The movie, directed by sisters Valentina Bertani, who previously directed the documentary The Crown Shyness<\/em>, and Nicole Bertani, is about young sisterhood and more.<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201d1997: eight-year-old Linda drifts away from her wealthy grandmother\u2019s Swiss villa with her carefree mother Eva. In Italy, she meets Azzurra and Marta,\u201d reads the synopsis for the film. \u201cA summer bond unites the three girls in a gang formed to protect each other, their youth, and their freedom. Around them swirl selfish parents chasing fragile dreams, gossiping neighbors, and a queer babysitter searching for belonging in a homophobic world.\u201d<\/p>\n Viewers will immediately notice an energy mindful of animated content. A constantly moving camera and saturated colors not only take us back to the \u201890s. \u201cThe irregular and unexpected trajectories of the POV don\u2019t allow the viewer to indulge in passive enjoyment,\u201d the sister duo says in a directors\u2019 statement.<\/p>\n They wrote the screenplay, inspired by their own childhood experiences, together with Maria Sole Limodio. The ensemble cast features Mia Ferricelli, Agnese Scazza, Petra Scheggia, Clara Tramontano, Milutin Dap\u010devi\u0107, Jessica Piccolo Valerani, Cristina Donadio, and Matteo Martari. Intramovies is handling international sales.<\/p>\n The two Bertani sisters both have a range of creative experiences. Valentina\u2019s The Crown Shyness<\/em> screened at Venice and was nominated for five David di Donatello awards. She has also directed music videos for Ligabue, Negramaro, and The Kolors, and TV ads for Gucci, Valentino, and Toyota. Nicole works as a creative director, graphic designer, and film director. She has worked with publishing groups and such brands as Bvlgari, Seletti, and Gucci. Mosquitoes<\/em> is her feature directorial debut.<\/p>\n The Bertani sisters discussed with THR<\/em> the inspirations for the movie, including The Powerpuff Girls<\/em>, casting their three young leads, bringing back the brothers featured in The Crown Shyness<\/em> for the film, its unique visual style, and what may be next for them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very personal story,\u201d Valentina explained. \u201cWe lived that experience in 1997 \u2013 me, Nicole, and our best friend. We didn\u2019t understand some of the mysteries as the adults around us, our parents and others in the neighborhood, weren\u2019t able to tell us the truth\u201d about such things as the drug addiction of an adult in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n The gay babysitter Carlino featured in the film is also based on the sisters\u2019 babysitter. \u201cHe was a gay man in 1997, which, for our street and for the neighborhood, was an incredible thing, because it was very rare for Italy back then,\u201d she highlighted.<\/p>\n How did this first feature film writing and directing collaboration between the sisters work? \u201cWe have the same references,\u201d explained Nicole. \u201cWe watched the same films, so we are on the same page. But also, we have different skills. So, yes, sometimes, we fight, because we are sisters, but not on set, of course. But most of the time, we completely agree on everything. Also, Valentina has more experience than me in directing, but she was always with me and listened to me, so it was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Valentina enjoyed the experience too, calling Nicole humble. \u201cShe is a great, great art director and creative director,\u201d she said. \u201cShe created all the graphics in our feature, and it\u2019s very important for the visual identity.\u201d<\/p>\n The sisters shared visual references on fashion and other things to get the look and style of the movie right. Colors play a key role here. \u201cWe worked a lot on the color palette,\u201d shared Nicole. \u201cThe colors are more related to the characters. For example, Eva is red because she\u2019s dangerous. For the kids, we used the colors of The Powerpuff Girls<\/em>,\u201d namely blue, pink, and green. \u201cWe also have a reference to [anime series] Sailor Moon<\/em> in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n That explains the film\u2019s often animated energy that makes it feel like an animated movie at times. Its storyboard looks like a comic book, the sisters shared, highlighting their love for graphic novels. \u201cWe have read a lot of graphic novels, so we are probably very influenced by that,\u201d notes Valentina.<\/p>\n The sisters saw a lot of girls, around 600, in the casting process to find their three leads with the right kind of energy for each character. For example, the search for the actress to play Linda narrowed down to three, \u201cbecause it was very difficult to find girls who had that personality of a porcupine,\u201d Valentina recalled. Porcupine? Come again? \u201cI mean cute, but also very dangerous,\u201d Valentina explained.<\/p>\n Young Mia Ferricelli ended up hitting all the right notes, including with her attitude. Her audition tape puzzled the sisters because the girl showed off and discussed the windows of her home. \u201cWe don\u2019t know why, but she said, \u2018This is the first window. This is the second window, and I can open it like this\u2019,\u201d shared Valentina. \u201cSo we asked her to do another tape, and she did and said in it: \u2018Okay, directors, I have made this video again. I don\u2019t know why the first one wasn\u2019t okay for you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Agnese Scazza, who plays Azzurra, showed up for the callback \u201cscreaming, \u2018I\u2019m Azzurra. No one is more Azzurra than me,’\u201d Valentina recalled. \u201cWe said, \u2018Okay, we can choose you, but please, can you run around in the flat?\u2019 I don\u2019t know why, but a lot of actors can\u2019t run or walk in any other way [when asked to do so].\u201d<\/p>\n The sisters also cast Petra Scheggia as Marta. They met at a screening of Valentina\u2019s doc The Crown Shyness<\/em> about Marta\u2019s uncles Benjamin and Joshua Israel, identical twins with a learning disability who also play roles in Mosquitoes<\/em>. Petra told the directors that she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her uncles and be in a movie. But initially, she was too young and had difficulty learning lines and concentrating on set for longer periods. As the casting process continued, the directors brought her back, and she walked in, saying she was ready now and itching to prove it. And, the director sisters agreed, she nailed it!<\/p>\n While the sisterhood of the three girls in the film and the characters they can really relate to have first names, all other characters are simply called The Father, The Mother, The Neighbor, and so on. \u201cThat is because they are kinds of stereotypes,\u201d explained Valentina. \u201cThey are like the fathers and mothers of the \u201990s. All the people who saw our movie said \u2018Oh, my God, this guy is the same kind of father I had!’\u201d<\/p>\n Fans of the Bertani sisters can expect more collaborations from them. \u201cWe love working together,\u201d whether it is film, a book, or something else, says Nicole. \u201cSo yes, we will do something together again.\u201d Stay tuned!<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You can find several animal-related titles in the competition lineup of the\u00a078th edition\u00a0of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival. Donkey Days and White Snail have already had their world premieres, and on Tuesday afternoon, it is time for the debut of Mosquitoes (Le Bambine). The movie, directed by sisters Valentina Bertani, who previously directed the documentary The Crown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1955625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[343126,338999,144895,343125,31190,343127],"class_list":["post-1955624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-crown-shyness","tag-locarno-film-festival","tag-nicole","tag-nicole-bertani","tag-the-hollywood-reporter","tag-valentina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u2018Mosquitoes-Looks-to-Bring-the-Buzz-Inspired-by-Its-Directing.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1955624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1955625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1955624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1955624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}