FRED Film Radio - English Channel

In our captivating dialogue with MOWG, a distinguished composer and musician from South Korea, we delved into the intricate art of film scoring during the 23rd Korea Film Fest in Florence. MOWG expressed his enthusiasm for being in Italy, highlighting how the vibrant culture and exquisite cuisine fuel his artistic inspiration. As we explored his creative process, he provided insights into his collaboration with the acclaimed director Hwang Dong-hyuk on the powerful film "Silenced," which addresses the deeply unsettling themes of child abuse. He found the narrative shocking, leading him to ingeniously blend a childlike atmosphere with haunting musical elements designed to evoke profound feelings of sadness and emotional depth in the audience.

From Silence to Sound: MOWG's Film Scoring Journey at the 23rd Korea Film Fest

As we continued our discussion about his work on "Masquerade" MOWG elaborated on how historical contexts greatly influence his compositions. He draws from Korea’s rich musical heritage to craft scores that resonate with the film's aesthetic, intertwining traditional melodies and instruments with compelling cinematic narratives. His experience working across diverse genres is reminiscent of meeting individuals from different worlds, allowing him to embrace a variety of influences that enrich and diversify his compositions.

Harmonizing History and Innovation: MOWG’s Diverse Musical Universe

MOWG also offered valuable insights into his approach to stylistic diversity, explaining how each director’s unique vision encourages him to innovate relentlessly. This dynamic creative process is particularly evident in his work for "I Saw the Devil," where he artfully fused classical instruments with elements of Bossa Nova to construct an eerie yet captivating atmosphere. He revels in these challenges, showcasing his remarkable adaptability and unwavering commitment to creating distinctive soundscapes.

A surprising twist in our conversation unveiled MOWG's childhood fascination with classic European films, particularly the works of the celebrated director Michelangelo Antonioni. He reminisced about how his exposure to a myriad of cinematic styles has profoundly shaped his understanding of music as a visual language, emphasizing that he can connect with the emotional essence of a film without needing subtitles.

Recently, MOWG has been channeling his excitement into new projects, including an upcoming film directed by the renowned Park Hoon-jung, where he will step into the role of a serious killer. This marks a stark departure from his musical roles and adds an intriguing new chapter to his multifaceted career.

Unveiling the Sound of Silence

Reflecting on his experiences at the Korea Film Festival in Florence, MOWG mentioned his recent masterclass and how discussions surrounding Dante have ignited new musical curiosities within him. He expressed heartfelt gratitude for the cross-cultural influences that continually inspire his work, drawing inspiration from iconic figures such as Miles Davis and Ennio Morricone.

As he prepares for an exhilarating concert with the Florence Pops Orchestra, MOWG shared his enthusiasm for collaborating with an ensemble that breathes new life into his works. This partnership promises to create an unforgettable experience, both for the audience and for him as a composer.

In essence, MOWG’s journey through the realms of music and film embodies a thrilling exploration of sound and storytelling, showcasing his dedication to pushing artistic boundaries while engaging with a rich tapestry of cultural influences.

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Karim Moussaoui to talk about “The Vanishing”, a film presented at the Meridiana section.

The heritage of our parents

“The Vanishing” is based on the book by Samir Toumi. There are some differences between the film and the novel, but there is also a common narrative core that the director wanted to explore. “The relationship between generation and the generation gap is something that interested me a lot because the heritage of our parents sometimes make our daily life really hard”, says the director. “I was interested in the book because of a question: 'How to escape from that and how to be once again free from any influence of the past?”.

The ambiguity

There is an ambiguity in the characters. What did that allow the director to explore in a narrative way? “There was really a long discussion between my producer and my editor about what kind of person Reda is. We all have complexity, we are not always nice, we are hiding some frustrations, we are hiding a bit of violence. And, for example, were not expecting how much violence Reda was keeping in himself”, explains Karim Moussaoui. “With the film I'm trying to show how we are creating monsters in our society because of the pressure and all those things that society is expecting from us”.

Contemporary Algerian cinema

How does the director describe contemporary Algerian cinema? “There is a new wave of directors and new movies, but it's still a bit complicated for directors to make their movies, It's hard to find money, there isn't a cinema school and just one funding. We need to make our films in co-productions”, says Karim Moussaoui.

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Ibër Deari to talk about “Everybody Calls Redjo”, a film presented at the Meridiana section.

A universal story

“Everybody Calls Redjo” is a story of immigration. The protagonist decides to stay in his country while everyone around him decides to leave. "I thought that this type of immigration only happened in my country, North Macedonia and the Balkan countries, but I see that it is very universal and is happening everywhere in the world", says Ibër Deari. "I wrote the script with Artin Selmani five years ago and from there I started to feel that all my friends were leaving my country. That was the beginning".

A film inspired by a true story

As a young man and a director, how does the director relate to the protagonist of  “Everyone Calls Redjo”? "I related so much to the character of Redjo because I know him in real life", explains Ibër Deari. “I asked him: 'Are you going to leave the country?' He replied: 'No, I don't need anything else. For me, it's enough to work and be here with my family.' And that's why I was so fascinated by this man”.

The tone of the comedy

“Everyone Calls Redjo” addresses the topic of immigration with a comic tone. "With comedy, you can easily tell the truth. Like Charlie Chaplin's films or Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful. I tried to do the same with my film", says Ibër Deari.

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Jaylan Auf to talk about “The inevitable journey to find a wedding dress”, a film presented at the Meridiana section.

The Meaning of the Wedding Dress

At the heart of “The inevitable journey to find a wedding dress” is the frantic search for a wedding dress by two young girls. A dress with a strong symbolic value whose meaning can change for a person throughout their life. "Whether it's in Egypt or elsewhere, wedding dresses have a universal meaning, more or less. For me, it's evolved from something that's more of a fairytale understanding of the concept to something more abstract, something like a very simple dream that someone might pursue", says Jaylan Auf. "And that's actually the concept behind the film. It's what the two characters are looking for and even within the film itself the concept of the dress evolves from one point to another".

A documentary-like approach

Did Jaylan Auf's background as a documentary filmmaker influence the making of the film? "Definitely", says the director. “This film is a completely fictional story, however, it combines different genres together. Initially we talk about the concept of a wedding dress as a fairy tale, however with a very real approach. The approach to the camera itself is documentary-like. It is always very close to the subjects”.

The right to dream

In one sequence of “The inevitable journey to find a wedding dress” the protagonist states that wearing a wedding dress is her right. A sentence that contains a very deep and nuanced meaning. "It is a scene in the film where the fiancé asks her if she really wants this dress. With her head she says no, but with her eyes she says: 'It is my right'. The scene, first of all, shows that there is love between both of those characters, even if they are very different. And it shows the importance of the journey itself", explains Jaylan Auf. "Because the journey is not about whether or not she gets the dress or whether or not she wants this particular dress. It's about the fact that she has the right to dream about something, even if it's very big or very small. She has the right to dream and to get what she wants. She's worked very hard in her life and she feels like she wants a win, not necessarily the dress, but a win".

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Gala Gracia to talk about “The Remnants of You”, a film presented at the Meridiana section.

A therapeutic story

“The Remnants of You” has some autobiographical elements. Was it therapeutic for Gala Gracia to be able to direct and tell this story? “I think most of the people that do the first movie have a very shocking experience in their lives. And at some point it's kind of therapeutic to write about this. At least the first draft of the script. For me it was like that”, says the director. “I had this idea because I felt a lot of pain because of the death of my father. I must say that the first draft of the script was more attached to the reality of what happened, but as I rewrote the script it started to be less autobiographical”.

Desire and expectations

The main character of “The Remnants of You” tries to reconcile her desires and the expectations that people have on her. How did Gala Gracia manage to write and work on this balance? And how does this aspect reflect her own experience? “The death of her father for the protagonist means that she has to leave behind the life that she had as a pianist in New York and to assume the reality. In my personal experience I had to come back from London, because I was living there. I was exploring life in a foreign country”, remember the director. “Sometimes you have to stop your life to do another completely different thing that you didn't expect, because I had to be in charge of a sheep farm that I had with my father and my sister. When he died, we had to work on it. I tried to balance Sara's desire of coming back to New York and the weight of the guilt that is stopping her”.

The music

Sara is a jazz musician and “The Remnants of You” uses music in a narrative way. “In the movie there are two main aspects that belong to the father. One is the obvious one: the sheep and all the farming around their lives. And the other one is the music, because the father is a fanatic of jazz music and it's what links him to his daughter”, says Gala Gracia.

The wrong face of globalization

Many movies of the Meridiana section at Bif&st share the same themes. “I think this is because of the changes in the world”, underlines Gala Gracia. “We are connecting to our roots, because we are starting to see the wrong face of globalization and now we are immersed in so many theories about defending, going back to the origin, or defending more sustainable models. We have to step backwards again, think about our origin, our roots, our family. All these themes, maybe, that now we are touching in cinema as well”.

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Mark Anthony Green to talk about “Opus”, a film with John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett presented at Rosso di sera section.

The idea of tribalism

“Opus” describes celebrity as a dangerous cult. How does Mark Anthony Green think the obsession of fame, even among ordinary people through social media, is influencing our society? “I think the thing we interrogate in the movie is bigger than just celebrities” says the director. “It also goes to elected officials, it goes to community leaders. Opus is a super fun movie, it's a wild ride. But the thing we interrogate - this idea of tribalism - it exists in religions, in churches, on television and in radio. Unfortunately it's a universal kind of global pandemic that's bigger than just celebrities. I chose a pop star because it felt like the most fun way to do it, but it's a big problem”.

An authentic film

Before becoming a director, Mark Anthony Green was a journalist like Ariel, the main character of “Opus”. Through the film, the director also tells the story of the obsession of a certain type of journalists to be in the spotlight. “The journalism in Opus, to me, was really important to get the power dynamic correct. And that was it”, says Green. “If her relationship to Moretti was different, if she was an assistant or something like that, then I still think we could have told this story. I'm sure that I brought a lot of my experience when I look back at young Mark Anthony and the mistakes that he made when he was Ariel's age. It was easy for me to apply a lot of that, because I lived it and was a journalist for 13 years. But the most important thing was just for it to feel accurate, for young journalists to watch this film and feel like: “Oh, that is an accurate representation of me”. And I felt the same way about pop stars. I wanted Elton John, Liberace and David Bowie, if they were still here, to be able to watch this film and to be like: 'Yep, those songs sound right'. I think that authenticity is something that I owe the audience. And I'm super proud to say that Opus is a very authentic film'”.

Artists aren't supposed to have answers

It took Mark Anthony Green six years to make “Opus”. And in these years the world has become even darker, making the film even more relevant. “I would trade the relevancy in a heartbeat if it meant the film was less relevant. But unfortunately, that's not our current situation”, says the director. “And I think in particular, this very specific thing that Opus kind of tackles and interrogates, the world has gotten much worse in that regard. And so I don't pretend to have any answers. I don't think artists are supposed to have answers. We're supposed to provoke and to create experiences that people share and that smart come up with the answers and figure out a better path forward for us”.

The need to have idols

"Opus" puts a cult at the center of the story. But why, according to the director, do we need idols so much? “I think it's very human. One of the most human instincts is to want to belong to something bigger than yourself. To want to belong to a group, to be connected and tethered to other classes of people and a guild or a movement or whatever. That is so human”, says Mark Anthony Green. “And with less and less people being religious and having organized religion in their life, I do think that we've kind of supplemented the void of that with these people. And it's so visceral and it can also be fun and it can feel like you really belong to something. But I think the question that Opus asks is: 'Does this still serve us?'. Are we better off because of our extreme belief and idolatry of these people or has this institution gone too far?'”.

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Samira El Mouzghibati to talk about “(Y)our Mother”, a film presented at the Meridiana section.

The meaning of family

In “(Y)our Mother”, Samira El Mouzghibati asks her sisters what family means to them. But what does family mean to the director? Did the concept of family change after the documentary? “It's interesting because in the movie it's also a question I ask to myself and to me family was very much a relationship I needed to preserve and not to lose. And all the fears that come with it”, says El Mouzghibati. “So the fear of talking, the fear of saying the truth because you are afraid to lose your family if you say too much. But with this film, I understood that family ties are so strong that you can go a long way with your family and tell deep truths because we are family and the ties are very strong”.

A gift for herself?

In "(Y)our Mother" the director has the opportunity to delve into very intimate aspects of her mother’s life and the relationship between the woman and her sisters. Does Samira El Mouzghibati also consider the documentary a gift to herself and to them? “Maybe there was something of a fantasy of a gift. I'm the youngest of my siblings and I had this fantasy: 'I want all my family to come together and that everything would be okay'. But this film is mostly my journey towards my family and towards my mother. And for sure, it was already a gift to myself and, I hope, a gift for them also”.

A gesture of love

In the documentary, the director films her parents and sisters, including some family footage. What was their reaction when she told them she was planning to make "(Y)our Mother"? “A lot of people ask me that question because I come from a very conservative family, especially my mother. And so a lot of people are like: 'How did you convince her to do this film?'”, says Samira El Mouzghibati. “Actually I didn't really have to convince anyone because I think they understood before me that I needed to do this film. And there is really a gesture of love from them towards me, accepting to do this film with me. And some of them said that maybe it was also something useful for them to talk, to try to gather, to film and to tell our story. Because there is also a common story”.

Similar themes for different movies

Many of the films in the Meridiana section of the Bif&st deal with themes such as heritage, identity, roots. How do you explain that so many directors from different parts of the world felt the need to talk about similar themes? “I think our world today is like that. We are very much mixed up and our identities are always moving, always reshaping itself. And it brings a lot of joy and richness with it, but also a lot of complexities, a lot of pain, a lot of loss. And I think as humans, we need to deal with those questions because these are very actual questions”.

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Ameer Fakher Eldin to talk about "Yunan", a film presented at the Meridiana section.

The meaning of home

“Yunan” is a film that talks about identity and memory. Two elements deeply linked to the concept of "home". What does "home" represent for Ameer Fakher Eldin. “I come from a place which is a bit conflicted with this matter”, says the director. “I come from the occupied Golan Heights, which was Syrian back in 1967, and since then it's been under Israeli occupation. Growing up there felt very much like an exile. Usually we connotate it with some movement that you have to flee. In my situation I didn't need to flee. I was displaced in my home. I've never been to Syria and I can't go to it. The idea of home in this regard is complicated. I tend to suggest in my films that home could be also in our fantasy as well”.

The fear of being forgotten

Thanks to Mounir's mother and the fairy tale, “Yunan” also talks about memory. But what does it mean for a person who can't go home and can't even go to their motherland? “I think, my main character is more feeling that his fear is not only that he lost something in the past but that he will be forgotten. The whole film started with a question: 'Who are you when your mother forgets about you?'”.

A dark moment for humanity

We are living in a really dark time and talking about roots. What did Ameer Fakher Eldin feel when he heard Trump's words about the future of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people? “Terrible, of course. This guy is just crazy. I don't think anyone should take him seriously”, says the director. “It's scary, but on the same impulse, I'm not surprised because the world has always been kind of torn between the north and the south. And now somehow the wrong people are in charge. And it's funny because for this film I was inspired by the suicide letter of Stefan Zweig, which is a Jewish Austrian author who fled the World War Two from Austria. He tried London and he failed, he tried New York and he failed. He found a peaceful refuge in Brazil. Somehow the cycle is now turned. It was the north seeked refuge in the south. And now it's somehow the opposite. When I read his suicide letter, I was inspired. This is so relevant to any odyssey of a human kind of exile".

The trilogy

“Yunan” is the second chapter of a trilogy. What will the last chapter be about? "The trilogy, called 'Home,' started to explore the idea of displacement and the idea of home. And it starts with 'The Stranger,' which was mainly about a man who doesn't want to leave his country, even though it's in crisis and in a kind of war. He had a reason why he wanted to stay, but he was a stranger among his own people. And so he also had an existential crisis there”, says Ameer Fakher Eldin. “The second one was kind of the opposite. There's a character in exile, unable to go home and he also has an existential crisis. The third film will be about a character who is free from all borders. He's a free character. He's very successful. He comes from a small village somewhere in the Middle East, but he's free. He's all over the world and there are no borders anymore. But he's still nostalgic. But this time I won't look at him as a victim. It's important for me to close this trilogy to make sure that we look at the nostalgic not as a victim, but as a toxic presence. And this toxicity of being nostalgic is to understand that, maybe, the borders are in his head”.

As part of the 2025 edition of the Cinema Made in Italy festival in London, Fred FM spoke to the director of the closing night film, "The Great Ambition."

Andrea Segre revealed the motivations behind returning to this period of Italian history, particularly when Enrico Berlinguer was the leader of the Italian Communist party in the 1970s, as well as the painstaking research that went into making the film.

Beyond looking at texts, transcripts and video archive footage,  Segre also turned to other features such as "Milk" and "Malcolm X" as a source of inspiration in the way of telling his story and weaving in the archive to his fictionalised storytelling.

The director praised his star, Elio Germano, for his phenomenal incarnation of Berlinguer that went beyond something of an imitation to truly understand the politician as a way of authentically portraying him.

Finally, Segre shared his hope that returning to this period of history might help contemporary, and particularly younger audiences, regain some sense of renewed vigour in reaching for an ideal in modern-day society and "build collective dreams" once more.

At the 2025 Cinema Made in Italy festival at London's BFI, Fred Film Radio had the chance to speak with singer-songwriter turned filmmaker Margherita Vicario about her stunning directorial debut, "Gloria!".

Margherita Vicario explained her two-part compulsion to share the story as autobiographical elements borne out of her desire to capture the intricacies of the creative process "inside the soul of an artist," as well as to unearth a part of feminist history, in terms of female composers, that's long been buried, like "dried flowers caught in the pages of history".

We discussed how the movie mashes up genres in the sense of serving up core tropes of a traditional period drama, yet then often totally subverting them with anachronistic music, and injecting a contemporary feminist energy into proceedings, perhaps recalling the likes of Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette".

She further revealed how she fostered a close bond between the actors to replicate the sisterly bond the characters had within the convent, as well as having them take music classes to convincingly pull off playing the violin and piano.

Finally, Margherita Vicario shared how she wanted to balance shedding light on how female talents of the past were never given their full chance to shine under oppressive patriarchal structures, with a sense of joy, empowerment and inspiration as audiences leave the cinema.