Benigni sets new film in war-torn Iraq
Having sought to portray a lighter side of Nazi concentration camps, Italian actor-director Roberto Benigni is now looking for laughs in wartime Iraq.
“The Tiger and the Snow,” which Benigni has started shooting in Italy, closely follows the Oscar-winning blueprint of his 1997 film “La Vita e Bella” (Life Is Beautiful).
As in “Life Is Beautiful,” Benigni takes the starring role, again chasing after his real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi. And, once again, the story unfolds against the backdrop of a world conflict.
“It’s certainly not a documentary. But everything, right from the beginning of the [Iraqi] conflict, is extremely well documented,” Benigni, who hopes to have the film in theaters by late next year, said in an interview with Italian newspapers. “I wasn’t being cynical in setting the film in Iraq. The war has become part of our dreams.”
Benigni won an Oscar as best actor for “Life Is Beautiful,” in which he played a Jewish father who protects his son from the horrors of a concentration camp by pretending it’s all a game.
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