Italian filmmaker, Andrea Pallaoro, celebrated his second time in competition at last year’s Venice Film Festival with his third film, Monica, starring Trace Lysette (Transparent) and Patricia Clarkson (She Said, The Station Agent). The 42-year-old filmmaker from Trento divides his time between Los Angeles and Italy and first won acclaim with his 2008 short film, Wunderkammer, followed by the feature films, Medeas (2013) and Hannah (2017), starring Charlotte Rampling. In Monica, the title character (Lysette) is a trans woman who returns home to Ohio from Los Angeles to care for her dying mother (Clarkson), many years after leaving the family when she began to transition.

As the film opens in the U.S. May 12, HFPA member Silvia Bizio sits down with the Italian producer, director and writer of the film to talk about his creative process, from his decision to shoot in a narrow, exactly square aspect ratio that boxes characters in, to his slow filming techniques that he says allow his actors to “just be, not act.”