Filming on the latest movie by German cinema legend Wim Wenders got under way in the Sicilian capital of Palermo on Monday.
'The Palermo Shooting', which boasts an award-winning international cast, is "a romantic thriller that could only be set in Palermo," according to Wenders.
While he has refused to be drawn on details of the plot, the filmmaker insists the film will steer clear of Mafia-ridden stereotypes.
"It is the story of a successful photographer, Finn, played by [German rock star] Campino," explained Wenders.
"His life falls apart so he decides to dump everything and go to Palermo, where he embarks on a new life and an electrifying love affair".
Finn's love interest is played by award-winning Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno, who will shortly appear on cinema screens around the world in the film adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's classic novel, Love In The Time Of Cholera.
Wenders only finished the final version of the script at 5am on Saturday morning, following 20 rewrites.
His reluctance to produce a screenplay months ahead of shooting came from a desire to let the city speak for itself, according to the 62 year old.
"I want this city to tell me its story," Wenders said at a press conference at the offices of the Palermo provincial government, which is helping finance the movie.
"I'll respect the place and let Palermo tell me its story, like I did with Lisbon Story. It will be a film about identity".
Speaking ahead of filming on Saturday, local officials expressed their delight at the project.
"The dream of seeing our city explored by a master like Wim Wenders has finally become reality," said the president of Palermo province, Francesco Musotto.
"It is a precious opportunity to understand ourselves better through the eyes of a real artist, who is able to understand the contradictions and depths of our current circumstances like few others".
Palermo Culture Councillor Mario Milone said the city council was "proud" to assist Wenders in the making of the movie.
"This film will tell the story of a different Palermo, one outside the stereotypes we have grown accustomed to, and will help introduce the general public to the deeper soul of our city," he said.
Shooting on the film's early scenes got under way in Wenders' hometown of Dussledorf three weeks ago and will finish in Sicily at the start of November.
The Palermo Shooting is Wenders' first feature to be shot in Germany for 15 years, and the first time he has ever filmed in the western city of Dusseldorf.
Wenders was born in August 1945, the son of a surgeon. He started studying medicine, then tried philosophy and later sociology before abandoning university studies altogether and focusing on art.
He moved to Paris in 1966 where he became hooked on films. Returning to Germany two years later, he entered film school and began working as a cinema critic.
After making several short films, he graduated from film school with his first feature-length movie, a black-and-white budget drama called Summer In The City (1970).
But it was his next film, The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty (1972) - a powerful piece about a goalkeeper who goes mad after being sent off the pitch and murders a cinema cashier - that began to stir interest.
In the meantime, he joined more than a dozen other German filmmakers in setting up a production and distribution cooperative which eventually became the nucleus of the 1970s New German Cinema movement.
Paris, Texas, made in 1984, established Wenders' cult status. The film, which Wenders wrote with acclaimed American playwright and actor Sam Shepard, won the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.
Other successful Wenders films include Wings of Desire (1987), Buena Vista Social Club and The Million Dollar Hotel (2000).
Wenders has also published a number of books, including several featuring his photography, essays and reflections on film-making.
