Originally Published: 2006-05-14

Distinguished Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi is looking to his Italian roots for his latest film, Il Sole Nero (The Black Sun). The movie, which he has started shooting in Umbria, is set in Sicily, has an Italian cast, and is based on an Italian play. Zanussi, considered one of European cinema's big guns, was born in Warsaw in 1939, but his family is of Italian descent. Il Sole Nero is an adaptation of a work of the same title by Italian playwright Rocco Familiari.
The movie stars Valeria Golino, who is best known for her part as Tom Cruise's girlfriend in Rain Man, but more respected for her work in European pictures, such as the 2002 Italian hit Respiro. Golino plays Agata, a young woman who finds love but then sees her dreams destroyed and is forced to choose between forgiveness and revenge.
"It is about the nature of evil and how there can be no justice in this world," the director said in a recent interview. Zanussi, a physics graduate, is a prolific director and screenwriter who makes documentaries and features for both the silver screen and television. Among the awards he has won are the Cannes Jury prize for Constans (1980), a movie about a man framed for corruption, and the Venice Golden Lion for Rok Spokojnego Slonca (The Year of the Quiet Sun - 1984), a love story set in World War II.
He is a staunch Catholic and was close to the last pope, John Paul II. His 1981 TV film From a Far Country is a biography of John Paul II, while Our God's Brother (1997) is an adaptation of Brother of Our Lord, a play the late pope wrote when he was a young priest. It is about Adam Chmielowski, a Polish artist-turned-revolutionary who renounced his career and his wealth to devote himself to the poor. John Paul II canonized Chmielowski in 1989. Zanussi's last feature film, Persona Non Grata, went down well at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. Last month Golino won the best actress accolade at the David di Donatello Awards - Italy's equivalent of the Oscars - for her performance in La Guerra di Mario (Mario's War) by Antonio Capuano. She also has a Venice best actress prize on her CV for her part in Storia d'Amore (Love Story - 1986).

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