Sometime after the second or third film together, director Abel Ferrara and his frequent star Willem Dafoe developed something of a shorthand. “The closer we are and the more experience we have together, the more independent we become on the set,” says the Bronx-born auteur behind such indie classics asKing of New YorkandBad Lieutenant. “He knows what he needs.
I know what he needs. And he can go about doing it. And we have the confidence in each other.” WithTommaso, which marks Ferrara’s first narrative feature since 2014'sPasoliniand his sixth collaboration with Dafoe, the pair are canvasing terrain easily described as close-to-home.