GROTTO

Category: Edition 2015

Synopsis
Three children force a classmate to a test of courage to get into their group. During the test, which consists in finding a skull in an abandoned church, the child is swallowed by a chasm that opens on the church floor. The other kids, who had stayed out, rush in the church, look in the deep hole, call their friend, but don’t receive answers. The little sister of one of them, who followed them, bursts into the church and lets herself down by a rope, but falls into the abyss, dragging the other kids. All five children find themselves into old caves in search of a way out, helped by Grotto, a creature alike a stalagmite.

Original Title GROTTO
Category Official Competition
Section Elements +6
Tipology Feature Film
Duration 93'
Production Year 2015
Nationality Italy
Directed by Micol Pallucca
Screenplay Micol Pallucca
Director of photography Maxime Alexandre
Editor Consuelo Catucci
Production Design Fabrizio D’Arpino
Music Francesco Cerasi
Main cast Samuele Biscossi (Carlo)
Iris Caporuscio (Chiara)
Gabriele Fiore (Aldo)
Christian Roberto (Luca)
Leonardo Similaro (Michele)
Produced by Micol Pallucca
Access

Micol-reg okMicol Pallucca
Born 1972. In 1995 she graduated in sociology (communication and mass media). In 1997 she joined the TV series department of the head office of the broadcaster Canale 5. Then she became a producer of TV series for the production company Mediatrade. In 2005 she was co-founder of the Fidia Film. She produced TV series such as CARABINIERI and AL DI LÀ DEL LAGO (based on an idea of her), the TV miniseries THE HOLY FAMILY (SACRA FAMIGLIA), the documentaries IL VIAGGIO DI GESÙ and L’ORO DI CUBA, the web series ROOMFORU - L’OSPITE PERFETTO. In 2013 she founded the Thalia Film. GROTTO is her debut as a director.

Director’s statement
“With the feature film GROTTO, I wanted to tell a story of friendship, a value that goes through the generations, by events that could satisfy not only the younger generations but also the adults who take the children to the cinema, turning the main characters of this feature film in human archetypes each of us can identify with.

“I didn’t want to make an ‘intimate’ feature film but pure entertainment, so I put in the movie a fictional character who, through his appearance and speaking, could hopefully become as darling for the children as E.T. was for the present generation of forty-year-old uncles and parents of today’s children.

“When professionals with great experience and artistic stature, one for all Maxime Alexandre, a great director of photography who now works almost exclusively in America, have decided to join me after reading the screenplay, I felt ready to face this new adventure behind the camera.

“Directing the five children was an amazing experience and I think these little actors have a great future before them, and I will never stop thanking their devotion and their willingness to shoot in aesthetically extraordinary but logistically uncomfortable places.

“Working in these days to the visual effects and creating the character of Grotto along with young Italian professionals full of enthusiasm for the opportunity to face the creation of a character such as Grotto, make me realize how much it was right to take over the feature film not only as a producer and a screenwriter, but also as a director.

“I hope the positive energy that you could breathe on the set, that I felt in the editing room and that you can perceive in the dark VFX theatres, can be moved into any big screen the feature film will be shown on, and not only in the 3D theatres where the audience will be literally thrown into the movie”.

production
festival contact
Thalia Film
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