Four days after wrapping the gothic fable Twixt Now and Sunrise

in California at his Napa estate, Francis Ford Coppola made a pilgrimage to Marrakech to appear as the headline guest for the city’s 10th International Film Festival. Filmmakers Roberto de Paolis and Carlo Lavagna met the 71-year-old legend in the library of the Art Deco hotel La Mamounia Palace for today's NOWNESS exclusive. “Coppola told me the whole idea for his new film came from a dream—more of a nightmare—he had in Istanbul, which involved children escaping from a cemetery,” says De Paolis, who counts the director as a longtime family friend. “My dad [producer Valerio de Paolis] worked on the first two installments of

The Godfather trilogy in Sicily,” he explains. Twixt Now and Sunrise, starring Val Kilmer, marks the latest in a series of more experimental visions for Coppola, following on from pre-WWII love story Youth Without Youth and last year’s monochrome tale Tetro. The director's anti-big-budget stance has enabled him to sidestep the industry and play by his own rules. “He’s doing more individual, personal movies now,” says De Paolis. Keeping it in the family, daughter Sofia’s stylish new feature Somewhere closed the festival. To see other high points from the Marrakech Film Festival, click here.