Production has begun in Sardinia on Italian director Louis Nero’s futuristic drama Milarepa, starring Harvey Keitel. The US’ Orwo Studios is handling sales to the film and talking to buyers at the EFM. 

Keitel joins a cast that also includes F. Murray Abraham, Angela Molina, Iazua Larios, Al Yamagouchi, Michael Ronda and Bruno Bilotta.

Milarepa takes place in a ‘no tech’ future and follows the story of a young girl who must disguise herself as a boy in order to exact revenge on her father’s family for enslaving her and her mother. The story is inspired by a Tibetan siddha who lived in the 11th century and on whose life Herman Hesse based Siddartha, his spiritual 1922 novel.

The film is a co-production between Nero’s Italy-based  L’Altrofilm and Jake Seal’s Orwo Studios. 

Orwo was originally founded in 1909 and is one of the last remaining manufacturers of analogue film. The group has its own production outfit Oreo Studios, whose recent credits include Ethan Hawke’s Blaze and Timo Vueronsola’s Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, and Grand Isle, starring Nicholas Cage. It also has a physical film studio base in Louisiana.

Executive producers are Zeno Pisani and Giovanna Maddalena.

Nero is also developing the thriller The Man Who Was Thursday with Green Book writer Nick Vallelonga and a TV series, The Puppet Master, about the life of Italian financier, Licio Gelli.