Interview by Fabrizio La Palombara CCS
After the preview at the 2025 edition of the Rome Film Festival – where actress Adalgisa Manfrida received two important awards, the Prize awarded by the RB Casting festival – Best Young Italian Performer and the UNITA Under35 Prize – Ultimo schiaffo by Matteo Oleotto is now in cinemas. Would you like to tell us how you met the director and how you came to work together?
I met Matteo between 2019 and 2020, whilst I was shooting a film in Trieste, La ragazza ha volato by Wilma Labate, which tells the very harsh story of Nadia, a sixteen-year-old from Trieste. In that film, Matteo’s wife, Rossana Mortara, was one of the protagonists in the role of the girl’s mother. Matteo and I met on that occasion and, as often happens, we spent an evening together talking about cinema and other things. We stayed in touch afterwards. Last year Matteo contacted me because he was working on this new project and was considering different possibilities. There were several meetings in which we got to know each other better, sharing our work and our ideas about cinema. Subsequently, he sent me the screenplay, written together with Pierpaolo Piciarelli and Salvatore De Mola, which I liked very much straight away. The film came twelve years after Matteo’s debut. In the meantime, he had worked extensively in television and was approaching this second feature with great maturity and high expectations. His aim was to make an important film.
I really liked the film. I haven’t seen the previous one, Zoran, and I’ll try to catch up with it. What clearly emerges from Ultimo schiaffo is that Matteo Oleotto is a director with very precise ideas. What directions did he give you during the preparation phase? Where did you start building the film? What was the creative process like before and during filming?
The responsibility I felt was great. It was as if Matteo was saying to me: “I’m entrusting you with my child”. There was immediately a strong connection, rather like when you meet someone and feel as though you’ve known them forever, or when you see an old friend again after a long time and immediately find a great harmony. Matteo, as you understood, had extremely clear ideas about the visual structure, the locations and the atmosphere, the deep feeling that the film had to convey. Everything started from a very solid screenplay: the story of two brothers in the provinces, a marginal territory, forgotten, where one only tries to survive, day after day. A cold world. Matteo wanted the setting to convey exactly the state of mind of the characters in a harsh context, where the sun never seems to arrive. Among the declared references was Fargo by the Coen brothers, which immediately came to mind when reading the screenplay, and in the film there are explicit homages to this marvellous work, such as the statue on the bridge. The aim was to construct a glacial and rough image, never self-indulgent, capable of expressing the harshness of those places. Another very precise idea of Matteo’s concerned the choice of locations. The film could only be set in Cave del Predil, a small town in the Tarvisio area, consisting of a church, a few large buildings and the mining quarries. It’s a place that resembles the former Soviet Union more than Italy, with symbols linked to the world of mines, such as the crossed hammers on the mountain. Matteo brought with him this imagery, together with the world of the Coens and other references, such as Napad – La rapina, a Polish film characterised by cold atmospheres, snow and intriguing colours. For my part, I complemented all this with personal research that also included pictorial suggestions, from Yugoslav naïf painters to paintings by Gino Covili depicting peasant winters, which I had discovered in a book that the painter had made in collaboration with Maestro Vittorio Storaro. In an initial phase, therefore, there was an interpenetration of ideas and worlds, which accompanied us until the start of filming, then, once on set, one had to deal with reality: the actors, the costumes, the weather conditions. Everything I had absorbed remained in my memory and continued to guide me, but at that point the film took shape by itself in front of the camera.
Indeed, the entire setting and location become almost protagonists themselves and convey to the viewer the sensations that the characters experience. The snow is always present and the cold is palpable. There aren’t many environments, they often repeat, also because the town is small. It always seems as though it has just snowed: in the exteriors there is constantly snow. Living in Turin, I grew up in contact with the mountains and I recognise that frozen snow on the surfaces, on the bridge, everywhere. Was this choice already planned in the shooting schedule or was the setting really like that?
I’m very pleased that you had that impression, because in reality we experienced a sort of catastrophe. During the first location scouts everything was completely covered in snow. I always remain like a child in front of snow: it’s something that continues to amaze me, I was totally entranced. Even during the second technical scouts the landscape was still entirely snow-covered. We set up the shooting schedule together with the assistant director, Mariachiara Squassino, sharing it with the entire production, and naturally starting with the exteriors. Fortunately, we managed to shoot the most important ones straight away, such as the bridge and the mountains, because after three or four days the snow disappeared. The temperature rose, it rained, and our entire landscape vanished. Every morning it was almost a running gag: we would go to pick up Matteo and he would say it looked like spring. We didn’t know what to do. In some cases we went looking for snow at the top of the mountains, where a little still remained. In others we decided to stop and shoot the interiors, convinced that sooner or later it would snow again. But the snow didn’t come. At that point we organised ourselves with lorries of snow coming from Slovenia and with extensive set design work: shovels, manual interventions, very complex work. We covered everything possible with snow, especially the areas where the actors would pass through, to guarantee a real interaction
with the environment. Subsequently, with the visual effects created by M74, we added snow on the mountains and wherever it was needed. However, it was essential to work on set: working in a landscape without snow, imagining that it would then be added, means finding yourself in a sort of limbo, difficult both for the actors and for us who had to construct the image. From a photographic point of view, snow completely modifies the environment: it reflects the light, changes the perception of spaces, creates a totally different atmosphere. The snow only returned two days before our departure from Tarvisio, whilst we were shooting a scene. We knew it would come, but after days spent obsessively checking the forecasts and the sky we had stopped believing it. When it finally arrived, we managed to make use of it. Matteo was always very good at adapting the writing, perhaps modifying a line, or asking for an intervention on the framing or the set design. Some locations changed, some situations were rethought. We also adapted in the camera movements, because when you work with a limited quantity of artificial snow you cannot afford 360-degree shots or movements that are too wide. So I’m very pleased that the viewer receives such a strong and coherent perception of the environment and the cold that runs through the entire film.
The result is extraordinary: you fully succeeded in your objective. Knowing our line of work, I must say that Oleotto was truly exceptional in adapting to these difficulties. How many weeks did you shoot the film over?
Over six weeks.
All in a row?
Yes, consecutive, six days a week. This allowed us to work well. Weather aside, these were scenes that, under those conditions, could be tackled with the right amount of time, thinking through and weighing up the choices. We dedicated at least two weeks to preparation and location scouts. I arrived in Gorizia and followed the costume fittings with Ginevra De Carolis, the make-up and hair tests with Mojca Gorogranc and Jan Tivib, the rehearsals for the more physical scenes with the stunt performers, discussed the environments with the production designer Vasja Kokelj. This made the production very solid. Everything was the result of collaboration. The direction of the film leaves no room for camera virtuosity. The choice of an apparent simplicity gives the film rigour and manages to convey great visual and emotional force, with its own precise form. There are some very courageous choices. The focus remains on the story and the actors, without ever neglecting the choice of atmosphere. We couldn’t afford to risk diverting the gaze in any way.
Speaking of the actors, I found them extraordinary: Adalgisa Manfrida, Massimiliano Motta and all the secondary characters. Acting of the highest level, with bizarre characters but never over the top, deeply real, because they’re measured.
I got on extremely well with them. I consider them exceptional actors and, in my opinion, there isn’t a role out of place. The work on the actors was incredible. The film is complex because it constantly walks a fine line between reality, fairy tale and the grotesque, and the risk of going too far was always around the corner. The direction and the actors managed to calibrate everything with great precision. I had also seen the auditions, which is something I really like to do, because you feel the film being born. After reading the screenplay, seeing those characters — Jure, Petra, the mother — take on body and face was fascinating. During the preparation phase I met Max and Ada (Jure and Petra), and I was struck. They have very particular faces and it seemed to me that the people coincided with the characters, there was an evident correspondence between them. Max and Ada stayed in the same hotel, studied together every day and authentic sibling dynamics had been created between them: the stronger and more determined sister, the kinder and apparently naive brother. And they were visible even off set. Their world became our world. They gave so much to the film. They were mature, available, kind. We had a good time, it was truly a beautiful shared journey.
Let’s give some details on the technique. Which camera did you shoot with, which lenses and what were the considerations behind these choices?
We shot with the ALEXA Mini LF and with Canon K35 lenses.
Marvellous.
I’ve realised that I’ve never shot two films with the same configuration. Also because today technology evolves at an impressive speed: every day cameras, lenses, possibilities change. Each film has its peculiarity and the combination of the right camera and the appropriate lenses is always a very considered choice. I was very curious to work with Large Format, which I hadn’t yet used, it seemed to me the right choice for faces and landscapes, and ARRI remains a guarantee in any case. 
Especially in extreme weather conditions.
Yes. This was also a determining factor. They told us that at night it would reach minus twenty degrees. We had to think of a camera that would remain reliable in those conditions in every respect. ARRI seemed to me the most solid choice. At the same time, the extremely high resolution of current cameras always makes me a bit apprehensive. For this reason I decided to pair the ARRI with older lenses, with a defined look, soft but at the same time precise and with a stunning image rendering. Initially, considering that the format was 2.39, we had thought about anamorphic, but it seemed to me that it produced a slightly more artificial image: anamorphic has a very strong identity of its own and I didn’t want to further burden the film. There was also a practical aspect: a camera mounted on a Ronin with anamorphic lenses, often very heavy, would perhaps have been less manageable. The combination of a Large Format camera with vintage lenses, compact and relatively light, seemed ideal to me instead: the right balance between image quality, character and practicality on set. Also consulting with my department, we were certain it was the right choice. The camera operator Alberto Marchiori did a fantastic job giving breath and the right perspective to the scenes, and the first assistant camera Barbara Sebastiani managed focus and the department without ever a slip.
I also adored the Canon K35s. I had already used them for Another End by Piero Messina, but with the Sony Venice 2. It was the first time I shot with the K35s and I found them extraordinary: truly exceptional lenses.
In other films, with the Sony, the presence of a more incisive signal, combined with a softer lens, has always seemed to me a good compromise. In this case the journey was different: a camera with an already gentler image compared to that of the Sony, combined with vintage lenses, which remain soft but with a truly exceptional rendering. I think I share with you a certain mistrust of hyper-definition. It frightens me: it often produces images that I perceive as plastic. For this reason I always feel the need for extensive image management work. Fortunately today, thanks to working with the DIT, Juri Fantigrossi, in our “darkroom”, through LUTs, I’m able to have an image on set already that I find readable and credible. Otherwise I struggle, because I know that the image will improve in post-production (indeed the colourist Fabrizio Conti did an excellent job), but at the time of shooting it’s a bit difficult for me to accept it. In the past it happened that I would intervene more on set with flags, NDs, filters in front of the lenses. In the last two or three films, I’ve stopped using filters and started looking even more for lenses with their own organic quality, even defects, something that made them alive and less artificial.
At the beginning of the film, for a moment, I thought you had shot in anamorphic, because of the torch aimed at the camera and the beam of light with a flare typical of that format. So I’m asking you if you used a filter to achieve that effect.
At that point I really wanted to give that impression. Since the beginning is coded as a thriller, I enjoyed the idea of “faking” the anamorphic, but only in that moment. It was achieved with a filter, exploiting the element of the torch, which I knew would react in that way. The filter and the lenses created that specific flare. I was interested in this small visual misdirection, because the story also proposes an opening almost like a horror film, leaving suspended the question of what one is watching. I wanted to accompany that sensation through the photography as well.
It often happens to me that, within a film, one or two focal lengths emerge with which I end up shooting most of the scenes, or at any rate that recur most frequently. Do you remember which were the main lenses for Ultimo schiaffo?
I’d say the 35 and the 55, which for me are the lenses of life. Also because, having as references Fargo, the Coens’ cinema, Roger Deakins, you arrive almost naturally at a lens like the 32mm on Super 35. It’s a vision very close to that of the human eye. Apart from some wide shots with the 24 and some tighter shots with the 85, the film was shot predominantly with these two lenses.
Is there a scene you’re particularly fond of, even for reasons that aren’t strictly photographic?
I’m very fond of the film in general and, on set, it happened several times that I got emotional or laughed. The ending destroyed me, because it’s a film that leaves you with a feeling of devastating melancholy. I also really enjoyed the day we shot it: that exterior with a sky that in my opinion perfectly condenses everything.
Do you mean the last scene by the sea?
Yes, the ending by the sea.
It’s exceptional.
Then there are other scenes that left a strong impression on me, such as when Jure finds the dog and is so crazy and happy that he sings him a song. I enjoyed it immensely, despite the complexity of shooting with a dog on set. It was a beautiful scene.
Was that song written or did it come about in the moment?
It came about in the moment. Max, in life, is a very interesting and eclectic person: he draws, he does rap. He gave many things to the character and Matteo knew how to welcome and integrate them. That song became something we would also sing on set and that still comes back to me today.
Does it happen to you too, as it does to me, to suffer at certain moments? Sometimes, due to directorial or production needs, or because a scene hasn’t been prepared as you would have wished, it happens to me that I feel I don’t have full control. Ti è successo in Ultimo schiaffo con qualche scena in particolare?
There’s something I carried with me right through to the editing and VFX: the scene in the clinic, when the two siblings go to visit their mother. There’s a large window through which you can see the snowy mountain, which was actually a green screen. We shot there for two or three days and, on set, I couldn’t accept that solution. Everything seemed fake to me, especially when the green appeared and I had to light the interior only with artificial light, pretending that the light was coming from the window. Right until the end it didn’t convince me. I know that those who see the film don’t perceive any of this, but I, even today, haven’t completely made peace with it. There’s a video I saw just yesterday that documents that situation. That set was on the third floor and we had to do quite complex work: a structure of motorised flags with three SkyPanels attached, a sort of artificial cube. The gaffer and I were there with this structure going up, a bit of smoke, the sunlight coming in, and at a certain point I say: “This is how to devastate beautiful light”. With that green everything seemed fake to me. Even today, when I see those images again, I feel a certain resistance, but those around me try to reassure me and tell me that it’s not noticeable, that it works…
Another thing I always wonder about when I find myself shooting a night scene in a forest concerns the management of light. You try to convey darkness, but it’s impossible not to light: if you don’t put anything, you see nothing. You absolutely have to do something. In this sense you were very good, because you managed the lights from below and from behind without creating that artificial effect you see in many films, where the viewer ends up wondering where that light is coming from.
That scene was a real obsession. First of all, we changed location at the last moment, again because of the snow, which further complicated things. The question was always the same: how do I light it? Do I put up a crane? But a light from above hits the snow too much and doesn’t really penetrate through the dense trees. In the end, together with the gaffer Elis Pantarotto, we decided to surround the field with SkyPanels and to insert a backlight, a Nanlite 1200 LED projector. The art department set off smoke machines everywhere. I had seen some images with a cutting light that seemed to me the most credible solution, something that just grazed the environment. I also always have this problem: when I worked with Salvatore Mereu I would often hear him repeat: “But where does this light come from?”. You have to find a justification, even a minimal one. The forest at night, by definition, is one of the most difficult situations for us, it kept me awake at night.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Yes. I want to say that this is one of those films where the director, as well as being a great professional, managed to create a truly special working group. In some way we too seemed part of that province, all a bit eccentric, but deeply involved. Matteo brought together people who truly cared about the story and the film. He listened to everyone’s opinion, then made his decisions, but always starting from a discussion. A microcosm was created in which production, direction, photography, set design, costumes, make-up, sound, editing, everyone put a piece of their own heart into it. This allowed us to face a journey that wasn’t simple, between bad weather, cold and frost. And it’s right to thank my constant travelling companions, my photography crew.
Thank you Sandro.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Camera: ARRI ALEXA Mini LF
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Lenses: Canon K35
Ronin 2
Camera operator: Alberto Marchiori
First assistant camera: Barbara Sebastiani
DIT: Juri Fantigrossi
Data manager: Fabio Cresseri
Second assistant camera: Ferdinando Di Camillo
Video assist: Aljaž Novak
Gaffer: Elis Pantarotto
Key grip: Klemen Fajfar
Rental camera, grips and lights: MB Grip and Viba Filmski
