Alessandro Borghi at Cannes: “I play a dumb male, far from the legendary cowboys. On the set I don't even know how to shoot”

Corriere Della Sera

By Stefania Ulivi

May 22, 2025

“Heads or tails?”, presented in the Un certain regard section, is defined by the two directors Alessio Rigo De Righi and Matteo Zoppis as an Italian western, not an Italian one

"He's not the classic macho on horseback. The Santino character is someone who is slapped in the face by events throughout the film, a guy without art or part. We don't even know if he has a house, a family. He doesn't know how to shoot, he doesn't know how to punch, he doesn't even know how to manage love. The only thing he knows how to do is ride a horse. He puts his limits and fragilities in front of everyone. It is Rosa (Nadia Tereszkiewiz) who guides the story." Alessandro Borghi is in competition at Cannes, in certain regard with "Heads or Tails?" by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis. An Italian western, "not Italian-style", as the two directors say. "The starting point was Buffalo Bill's traveling shows, which mixed history and fiction and built myths through mystified narration. They also arrived in Rome between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century."

According to the newspapers of the time, there was a challenge between cowboys and American cowboys, a race to tame a horse, won by the former. On this preamble — the cowboy Santino who defeats the cowboys, thus betraying the expectations of his master who had asked him to lose the race, having bet against him — the film is built with John C. Reilly cheerfully in the role of Buffalo Bill. Tereszkiewiz is the young wife of the squire. She, after killing him, escapes with the tender Santino. "Our idea was to subvert the genre, a cinephile passion of ours. We started from a classic premise, the hero who saves the beauty, and then crumbles her and leaves room for Rosa's path to liberation. The film starts from a male imagination and progressively deconstructs it. The hero is questioned and dismantled piece by piece, until a total reversal." We are not, in fact, in the area of spaghetti westerns. Between the Maremma and the West, another story is told. "When Alessio and Matteo told me about the project, more than two years ago, we referred to the tradition of Sergio Leone's films," explains Borghi. "But the connection we were looking for was only visual, to use that scheme and put in content that was more in line with contemporary issues. That is, the difficulty of knowing what to believe, the fact that everyone, if they want, can invent their own story. Or the obsession with wanting to be someone else, mythomania. Or, again, the difficulty of communicating, of finding love. Of living it. Within the framework of the western, these things emerge." He was enthusiastic to accept. He didn't know how to ride a horse, though. "Luckily I found a riding school in Arezzo where in three weeks I learned to ride bareback."

He also met several cowboys. "Many of them have a consideration of the masculine and feminine linked to the past. They grew up with a certain type of mentality that is not very easy to unhinge. But one thing struck me in some of them: the eyes, very sweet. As long as they stay with the horse they are happy. I tried to steal that sweet look for Santino." A wedding invitation for Nadia Tereszkiewiz who alternated horse lessons with Italian lessons, which she already spoke quite well. "I also had the opportunity to collaborate with the directors and the cast, in many common discussions. I like the idea of having chosen a different point of view. Leone's films, that kind of western, tell the story of male universes, with women on the side. Here she is the one who makes the difference." Borghi agrees. "I had a lot of fun making Santino the emblem of us slightly dumb males. During the preparation of the film it became increasingly clear that the actions of all the characters had to revolve around Rosa. A woman who cuts ties with the past to re-enter a new life." Even on the set they supported each other a lot, says Borghi. "I told her: look, these two directors are crazy, let's trust them and it will be fun. Her enthusiasm reminded me of mine in the beginning. In this profession you alternate between falling in love and falling out of love. Sometimes I get very angry, then I start again. Just look at how difficult it is to make cinema for everyone, it's terrible. With too many films that you don't understand when they start, if they start. Every now and then you have to remember where your passion comes from. Here it happened."