Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli, whose trilogy of female biopics, “Nico, 1988,” “Miss Marx,” and “Chiara” all launched from the Venice Film Festival, is set to direct the TV series “Fireworks” depicting the struggle of Italy’s partisans against Nazis and Fascists through the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl named Marta.
Shooting is set to start on May 8 in the Piedmontese Alps on “Fireworks,” which is being produced by Domenico Procacci’s Fandango and Rome shingle Matrioska.
Fandango, who is the show’s lead producer, is in advanced talks with Italian state broadcaster RAI to come on board. Fandango is also talking up the six-episode limited series at the Series Mania confab in Lille, France, where they are seeking prospective international partners.
The “Fireworks” cast, which is not fully contractualized, is being kept under wraps.
The historical series is based on the book “Fuochi d’artificio” by prolific Italian writer and school teacher Andrea Bouchard that revolves around Marta, a skinny girl with long blond hair that makes her look German who lives in the Piedmontese Alps. It’s set during the crucial World War II years after 1943 during which Italy experienced Civil War with the presence on its territory of foreign troops from opposite corners: the Allies, led by the U.S., in the liberated center-South, and the Germans and fascists in the North. Marta’s two older brothers, Matteo and Davide, are both engaged in the fight against fascism.
Marta and a group of kids form an intrepid group by the name of Sandokan who start causing trouble for the nazis and the fascists in the valley. It’s a historical adventure and also a coming-of-age tale of love and friendship, told from Marta’s perspective.
“I grew up with the cinema of the eighties,” Nicchiarelli told Variety. “Think: ‘Stand by Me,’ ‘The Goonies,’ ‘E.T.’; with these groups of children running around in bikes and saving the world,” she said.
“This series is more or less the same story because these kids run around in bikes and save the world from Nazis and fascists,” added Nicchiarelli, whose debut film “Cosmonauta” was about the growing pains of precociously young Italian Communists during the space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S..
The director pointed out that Italy’s identity as a nation was born when the country was liberated from fascism by the people who had been Resistance leaders, who are the ones who drafted the Italian Republic’s Constitution. “Incredibly, in Italy we are missing films and TV series that actually tell the story of the Resistance in a way that is accessible to a wider audience,” she said. “I thought the book was an opportunity to tell this story in a way that could be widely accessible. And since it’s through the eyes of children, also very strong.”
Nicchiarelli underlined that a key aspect of “Fireworks” is that it’s for all audiences.
“It’s a series that everyone can watch and in which each age group can see different things,” she said. “I have a family and I know how difficult it is to find something suitable to every family member.”
“Fireworks,” she noted, is “A piece about the Resistance and the Second World War that the whole family can watch to understand and learn about our past.”