In Dovecote , an atmospheric drama short film byItalian director and co-writer Marco Perego turns the camera on society’s often unseen citizens: the women confined to a seaside prison in Venice. Making its debut at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival , Dovecote , filmed inside Giudecca’s working women’s prison on an island in the Venetian lagoon, centers around a woman (Zoë Saldaña) during her final moments before being released. The film was also exhibited at the 60th Venice Biennale as part of the Vatican Pavilion.
Here, Perego speaks to Deadline about the inspiration behind the short film, what it was like to film in the women’s prison and wanting to encourage audiences to think about the cost of freedom. DEADLINE: What inspired this short film? Did you start with the idea of what the short was going to be about, or did the title come to you first? MARCO PEREGO: No, I was selected this year to be part of the Venice Biennale. It’s where each country selects one artist or multiple artists to represent.
Myself and Zoë represented. They asked us, “Do you want to be a part of this?” And I agreed. So I went to Venice, and discovered this prison, the Giudecca Women’s Prison, and there are 81 women inside the prison.
I met all the inmates and talked to them. It was a very beautiful process. I came home and me and Alex [Dinelaris Jr.
, co-writer] were in New York, and we tried to figure out how to approach this story. We thought about two questions w.