Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images for Red Sea International Film Festival.

There were cheers of “bravo” and an uncharacteristically long-standing ovation this evening in San Sebastian as the credits rolled on Johnny Depp’s second directorial effort Modi – Three Days On The Wing Of Madness. 

The period flick debuted out of competition here in San Sebastian where Depp has been welcomed warmly by fans and festival delegates. This evening before the screening began, huge swathes of festivalgoers congregated outside the Kursaal auditorium to catch a glimpse of Depp as he entered the building for the premiere.

Depp met similar crowds this morning at the Modi press conference where journalists rushed the stage to snap his picture.

Overall, Modi appeared to be generally well-received by the San Sebastian audience who sporadically cheered and clapped during the screening. There was particular enthusiasm for veteran actor Al Pacino, who arrives in the film’s final act. Pacino plays a wheeling-dealing art buyer who attempts to scam Modigliani out of a painting. Just before the credits roll, a message pops on screen as the film closes, dedicating the feature to the late English rocker Jeff Beck. Depp and Beck were longtime friends and collaborators. In 2022, the pair released the LP 18 on Rhino Records. The record would ultimately be Beck’s last before his death in January 2023.

Depp was joined this evening at the premiere by most of his cast, including the film’s leads Antonia Desplat and Riccardo Scamarcio. Al Pacino and Stephen Graham — who also has a prominent role in the pic — were not in attendance.

Modi is Depp’s second directorial effort and comes 27 years after The Brave, his debut film as a director. Described as a “seventy-two-hour whirlwind in the life of bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani”, the film follows the artist through a chaotic series of events through the streets of war-torn Paris in 1916.

The film’s synopsis reads: On the run from the police, his desire to end his career and leave the city is dismissed by fellow artists Maurice Utrillo, Chaim Soutine, and Modi’s muse, Beatrice Hastings. Modi seeks advice from his art dealer and friend, Leopold Zborowski — however, after a night of hallucinations, the chaos in Modi’s mind reaches a crescendo when faced with an American collector, Maurice Gangnat, who has the power to change his life.

Producers on the pic are Andrea Iervolino and Barry Navidi. Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas is handling sales.

San Sebastian runs until September 28.