An Academy Award winning actress, Penelope Cruz is known for her sensitive, sophisticated performances in a diverse roster of international hit films. Cruz, who netted an Oscar for her role in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in 2008, had only recently given birth to her own son when filming began on her latest movie “Twice Born.”
Emile Hirsch and Penelope Cruz star in Twice Born
A haunting and dramatic adaptation of Margaret Mazzantini’s novel, “Twice Born” is a love story which elegantly traces a timeline stretching from contemporary Italy to war-torn Sarajevo. “It pays homage to motherhood and I really connected with the book and really understood this woman, even if I had never been in the situations she had been in,” shares Cruz. “I connected with her to the level that I could not stop thinking about her – and it was a necessity to play her.”
Academy Award winning actress Penelope Cruz
Directed by filmmaker and actor Sergio Castellitto, the movie begins as Italian professor Gemma (Penelope Cruz) receives a phone call while having breakfast with her husband (played by Castellitto). The mysterious caller Gojco (Adnan Haskovic) is a friend she had met several years earlier in Sarajevo, a city she had travelled to as a student and spent time in. It was through Gojco, she had met Diego (Emile Hirsch), a young American photographer she had an affair with – a brief liaison which was interrupted by the brutal Balkan war that forced her to flee the city with their infant son. Seeking answers, Gemma returns with her teenaged son Pietro, to the battle-scarred city and discovers a long-hidden secret.
Director Sergio Castellitto discusses a scene with Penelope Cruz and Emile Hirsch on set
An immaculately crafted film, it reaches a climax that’s both hopeful and haunting. As it flickers rhythmically from the present to the past, the movie initially focuses on the love story of the carefree couple, Gemma and Diego who happen to meet in Bosnia, then part of Yugoslavia, attracted there mostly by the original culture of the Balkans and by its people. Moving back and forth in time, we learn of the hurdles and setbacks they encountered and the drastic measures they took when they discovered they could not have a child of their own.
Penelope Cruz is Gemma in movie Twice Born
Achingly poignant, the shifting between past and present is well constructed and clear from the beginning and every period detail is attended to and the look of the film establishes mood.
Shot in Rome, Croatia and current-day Sarajevo with a global cast, the film is bitter sweet, painfully joyous, richly satisfying and strangely uplifting and is an unforgettable film that will linger in the mind longer after the credits have rolled.
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television and film. She serves as the Entertainment Editor for Trendy Africa. Photos courtesy of Entertainment One Films US
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