The Undoing star Matilda De Angelis has said she hopes her new movie about an engineer who plans to build his own island in the middle of the sea will offer hope and escapism during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Italian actress stars in Rose Island, based on the true story of Giorgio, an engineer who hits rock bottom and is sick of the stuffy rules of Italian society of the late 1960s, so is joined by a team of revolutionaries and outcasts to found the Republic of Rose Island.
De Angelis said he wanted to “rebuild a society based on values and our views on brotherhood and freedom”, adding: “Maybe it’s something we will have to do when this ugly, brutal crisis finishes and we will have to dream about (our future), and maybe rebuild our scale of values and rethink about what’s really important in life, and also support the environment.
“We will dream about the future one day.”
The actress, who starred opposite Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman in hit murder-mystery The Undoing, has been in Italy through the pandemic.
She said: “Now we are divided in colours in Italy, so red zone, yellow zone, orange zone and in each part there is something different.
“I think this year has been tough for everyone in different ways. It is just hard to look at people suffering and having no more jobs and no more money and no more hope.
“That’s why this movie is so important and that’s why we are so happy to tell this story to the world because maybe for a couple of hours it will be nice to be together and do something that is a bit funny and hopeful.”
She added: “I was born in 1995, so the 1960s are years I can only imagine, but my mum told me about the sixties and especially the feminism movement during these years.
“It was fun for me to imagine myself in those years and think about how and when and why, and to imagine how I would have been if I’d lived in those years.”
Rose Island will launch globally on Netflix on December 9.