screenplay
in collaboration with
Eleonora Mazzoni
Laura Sudiro
and in collaboration with
Giulia Cosentino
cinematography
Timon De Graaf Boele
in collaboration with
Iacopo Loiodice
editing
Serena Pighi
with Ilaria Fraioli
music
Alexander Maurer
in collaboration with
Luca Fois
sound
Paolo Benvenuti
with Manuel Paradiso Stevani
production design
Alessandra Alberello Conti
costumes
Lucia Gallon

with
Sara Drago
Giovanna Ginex

production
Rossofilm
co-production
Rough Cat
producers
Marco Malfi Chindemi
Laura Romano
co-producer
Nicola Bernasconi

in collaboration with
Luce Cinecittà
Lab 80
RSI
with the support of
Regione Lombardia
MiC – Direzione Generale Cinema e audiovisivo

Fernanda Wittgens joined the Brera Museum in 1928, and after a few years she was its director. Courageous and visionary, during the war she saved artworks from the bombings, aided political opponents of Fascism and Jewish families in fleeing the regime, and was imprisoned for her actions. After Italy’s liberation, she rebuilt the Brera and championed its being open and accessible to one and all. Yet despite her groundbreaking policies, she was forgotten after her death. This film seizes on that absence. Calling on the actress Sara Drago, who lends her face and voice to Wittgens in her letters, and the art historian Giovanna Ginex, the filmmakers create a collaborative space in which the past, the present, and their interpretations are intertwined. Fernanda, albeit invisible, is a living presence.

Francesco Clerici
2026 Anatomia di un ritratto (doc)
2024 The Ice Builders (doc)
2022 La Paz del futuro (doc)
2022 Da soli insieme (doc)
2022 Even Tide (doc)
2021 Enrico Cattaneo. Rumore bianco (doc)
2019 Casa d’altri (short, augmented reality)
2018 Maneggiare con cura (doc)
2017 Giancarlo Vitali: Time Out (short, doc)
2017 Gillo Dorfles. In un bicchier d’acqua (short, doc)
2015 Il gesto delle mani (doc)

Mattia Colombo
2026 Anatomia di un ritratto (doc)
2023 Sconosciuti puri
(doc, directed with Valentina Cicogna)
2022 Il posto (doc, directed with Gianluca Matarrese)
2021 B Heroes (doc)
2017 Uninvited (doc)
2016 Il passo
(doc, directed with Alessandra Locatelli, Francesco Ferri)
2016 Ritmo sbilenco (doc)
2015 Voglio dormire con te (doc)
2014 Alberi che camminano (doc)
2010 Il velo (short, doc)

“When the producer Marco Malfi first spoke to us about Fernanda Wittgens, we were fascinated. At this time in history, with nationalism resurfacing and the patriarchy still in place, her story seemed extraordinarily relevant. In addition, it offered the intriguing challenge of building a film around what is missing, given the near total absence of any pictures of her. How to do it, starting from almost nothing? And as men, how to approach her experience with the appropriate gaze? For these reasons, we got the actress Sara Drago and the art historian Giovanna Ginex involved and spent a week together in the studio, trying to recreate Wittgens’ voice and produce a portrait at once accurate and intimate. On Wittgens’ trail, as it were, the project turned into an appraisal of the biopic itself, with the central role of the archive material and historical reconstruction gradually fading into the present, making room for a direct confrontation with the issues of our own day.” (Francesco Clerici, Mattia Colombo)

Francesco Clerici directed his first documentary, Il gesto delle mani, in 2015. Screened at the Berlinale (Forum), the film won the FIPRESCI Prize. Clerici’s work, which includes augmented reality, experiment films and documentaries, has been selected for festivals such as London, Busan, Jihlava, Sarajevo, the Viennale, and Dok.fest. His films have also been screened at institutions like the National Gallery in Washington, BFI in London, and Palazzo Reale in Milan. The Cinémathèque in Grenoble dedicated a retrospective to Clerici’s career in 2018.

Mattia Colombo directed Alberi che camminano, co-written with Erri De Luca and screened in competition at Sundance. His Voglio dormire con te earned him the Corso Salani Award. His film Il passo competed at Visions du Réel, which welcomed Colombo back in 2022, with Il posto, co-directed with Gianluca Matarrese and selected for Hot Docs as well. The following year, Colombo directed Sconosciuti puri (MFN Prize, Solinas Award), which was screened at Hot Docs and Karlovy Vary.