EXCLUSIVE: Doc about iconic horse race comes from Senna producer.
Ahead of the EFM, UK sales outfit Altitude has boarded enticing documentary Palio, about the thrills and spills of Italy’s iconic and dangerous horse race that takes place in the city centre of Siena.
The documentary will follow a young ‘outsider’ jockey keen to break into the dangerous but lucrative race - dubbed ‘the world’s oldest horse race’ - and the corrupt ‘insider’ who has manipulated Siena for over a decade.
Directed by award-winning BBC Storyville filmmaker Cosima Spender, the film is produced by Senna and Exit Through the Giftshop producer James Gay-Rees and John Hunt. I am Love producer Francesco Melzi d’Eril is executive producer.
Editor is Valerio Bonelli (Philomena), who is currently working as co-editor on Ridley Scott’s The Martian with Matt Damon and recently wrapped on Stephen Frears’ Icon, about the rise and fall of the Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
The score comes from Alex Heffes (The Last King of Scotland) and the cinematographer is Stuart Bentley (Our World War).
Director Spender said: “I grew up in Siena where the Palio is an obsession. It is steeped in emotion; the jockeys are loved when they win and despised when they lose. I researched everything about the race for 12 years, the mysteries, tricks and deals in a game where there are no rules - then we were lucky to be able to follow a rare moment in the Palio that happens every 20 years, a changeover of power in the jockey ranks.”
Producer Hunt added: “For James and me, the Palio and what it represents, the ambition and corruption under a cloak of passion, pride and pageantry, has been a heart-beat short of obsession. Our cinematographer Stuart Bentley grew up with spaghetti westerns so it all felt natural for him, and our editor Valerio Bonelli locked onto the human drama.”
Altitude’s EFM lineup also includes thriller Spooks: The Greater Good, starring Kit Harrington and Jennifer Ehle, and Screen Star of Tomorrow Corin Hardy’s chiller The Hallow about a couple whose rural idyll turns into a nightmare.
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