Small Body

Synopsis

A small island in northeastern Italy, winter of early 1900. Young Agata’s baby is stillborn. In the Catholic tradition, an infant that has not taken the first breath cannot be baptized, and its soul is condemned to Limbo without a name and without peace. But Agata has heard about a place in the mountains up north where infants can be brought back to life for just that one breath necessary to baptize them. So, Agata secretly leaves the island and undertakes a dangerous voyage with nothing but hope to guide her, her daughter’s small body hidden in a box. She doesn’t know the way and she has never seen snow in her life. She meets Lynx, a wild, solitary boy who knows the territory and offers to help her in exchange for the mysterious contents of the box. Despite their mutual distrust, they set off on an adventure during which their courage and friendship will enable both to come close to a miracle that seems impossible.

director's statement

If things don't have name, they don't exist. Agata rebels against the accepted order of her day, she is a heroine who challenges the laws of society in the name of an unwritten law, that is more mysterious and unfathomable: absolute love. Her fierce desire is to give her daughter a name in order to be able to let her go when they have become two separate beings. Agata's journey to the sanctuary is a progressive descent to the underworld, a path that leads her to the surprising discovery that there is a thin and indescribable borderline between life and death, reality and magic.

Crew

director
Laura Samani
screenwriter
Laura Samani
 
Elisa Dondi
 
Marco Borromei
director of photography
Mitja Ličen
editor
Chiara Dainese
sound designer
Riccardo Spagnol
sound recordist
Luca Bertolin
sound mixer
Nathalie Vidal
production designer
Rachele Meliado
costume designer
Loredana Buscemi
make up artist
Arianna Ferrazin
producer
Nadia Trevisan
 
Alberto Fasulo
 
 
Thomas Lambert

Actors

Agata
Celeste Cescutti
Ris
Ondina Quadri
Film format 
ARRI Alexa 
Video format 
DCP 
Lenght 24fps 
89' 
Length 25fps 
 
Sound 
5.1 theatrical 
aspect ratio 
1,85:1 
color 
in colour 
language 
furlanski dialekt 
translation 
slovensko, english 
 
 

produced by

Nefertiti Film

co-produced by

Vertigo

Kersnikova 4, SI - 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
Tel.: +386 1 439 7080
Fax: + 386 1 430 3530
E-mail: info@vertigo.si


with the participation of

Viba film

financed by

Eurimages

© 2009 - 24 Vertigo