How Emergency imagined the last man on Earth

Marking one year since Russia's attack on Ukraine, NGO Emergency has released this poignant and cinematic campaign, with the help of creative agency Ogilvy, director Igor Borghi and production company The Family Film. 

Shot in a real abandoned town in Italy, A Day Of Peace sees a lonely man who has survived a nuclear conflict living a solitary existence in an eerie, post-apocalyptic city. 

As he goes about his day, we see traces of everyday life before the war; abandoned cars, empty buildings, the last newspapers announcing the looming nuclear attack. 

The unsettling stillness of a once bustling city reminds us that in order to avoid this kind of peace, we must abolish war once and for all. 

The film is a reminder of what we are in the midst of risking.

How did the idea for the film first come about? What was your inspiration?  

When the agency told me the idea, I thought it was smart and disruptive. The main point was to understand that violence can’t really change a situation, we need to think differently, change our perception of war. We need to abolish it.  

The first image I had in my mind was the feeling of extreme loneliness in Cormack McCarthy's novel The Road.

The film launch coincided with one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - it almost feels like a prediction of things to come - was this what you had in mind when filming? 

The film is a reminder of what we are in the midst of risking.

How did you make the film happen with such a modest budget?  

With so little budget you have to do a lot of initial research and prep on your own. Trying to figure out, for every shot, how to achieve what you would have shot if you had a lot of money! 

Obviously, the film needs to adapt to what you can do. I called my 'dream team' of professionals that I usually work with, and everyone embraced the project, first of all the Family, the film production house. 

Shooting the film for Emergency was a pleasure and let me tell you, they deserve the support.

We shot in abandoned place that was cold and full of water. It was quite tough.

How did you discover the location? What are the logistics and restrictions of shooting in an abandoned town? How do you get access to empty buildings? Is there electricity, etc? 

I remembered an organisation that explores abandoned places around the world. I saw thousands of pictures and finally we identified an area that contained all the locations we needed. 

We shot in abandoned place that was cold and full of water. It was quite tough.  With Emanuele Zarlenga, the DP, we planned every scene at the right moment of the day, it was the only way to do it. We had no artificial light at all.

What was your favourite part of creating this film? 

I always work on every step of a film, from pre-production to post-production and I do love every moment. I loved working with a rising star of Italian cinema, Angelo Spagnoletti, who was playing the leading role.  

Were the sets used exactly as you found them, or did you alter them at all for filming? 

I scouted many places in order to find the right locations. We changed some of them. For example we decorated the interiors of the house to create a place where he [the main character] could have lived.

The music highlights a contrast between the choirs, sung by many people, and his loneliness in a deserted world.

There's a scene where the main character comes across a road full of abandoned cars, how did you make that happen? 

I wanted to create that scene, and it wasn’t easy. I shot the cars in a junkyard, and I shot the background afterwards, then put the footage together.