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The Heavens

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Trailer

original title:

Li paradisi

directed by:

Manuel Marini

cast:

Celeste Casciaro, Salvatore Della Villa, Anna Boccadamo, Arcangela Maria Winspeare

screenplay:

Manuel Marini, Paolo Tepatti

cinematography:

Edoardo Carlo Bolli

editing:

Manuel Marini

set design:

Paolo Tepatti

music:

Marco De Pascale

production:

Fondazione Apulia Film Commission, Sinossi Film

country:

Italy

year:

2020

film run:

12'

format:

16mm - colour

status:

Ready (30/05/2020)

festivals & awards:

  • The Lecce European Film Festival 2021: Concorso Premio Emidio Greco / Puglia Show - Premio Emidio Greco
  • WFF - Warsaw Film Festival 2020: Short Films Competition
  • MedFilm Festival 2020
  • Baku International Short Film Festival 2020: Best Documentary Film Director Award
  • Longue vue sur le court 2020
  • Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People 2020
  • Hainan Island International Film Festival 2020
  • Messolonghi By Locals 2020
  • ABCinema 2020
  • Pharos Best Inspiration Film Festival 2021
  • Dolomiti Film Festival 2021
  • SA.FI.TER - Salento Finibus Terrae 2021
  • Festival Internacional de Cinema de Menorca 2021
  • Umbria Film Festival 2021
  • Social World Film Festival 2021
  • Reggio Calabria FilmFest 2021
  • Cisterna Film Festival 2021
  • Aegean Film Festival 2021
  • Beach Film Festival 2021
  • Voci dei Boschi Film Festival 2021: Best Screenplay Award
  • Leiden Shorts 2021
  • Monterrey International Film Festival 2021
  • Kino Otok – Isola Cinema International Film Festival 2021
  • Castrovillari Film Festival 2021
  • Villammare Film Festival 2021
  • Porto Cesareo Film Festival 2021
  • DC Shorts International Film Festival 2021

Lucia owns a family olive grove together with her brother Donato, but her trees have stopped producing as they once did because of a parasite that caused most of the trees to dry out. In a difficult process of acceptance, Lucia embarks on a journey between present and past where her identity as a human being is at stake.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
Li Paradisi explores the dramatic “Xylella” issue, a bacterium that has affected millions of “evergreen” trees in the Salento area, causing massive explants of trees. The short film tells a story that wants express itself through images, presenting both realistically and symbolically the intertwined existences of human beings and nature, an immersion into a world that feed the emotions of the characters, using the ambient to mirror the conflicts of the souls. There is a more complex truth to what actors are actually seeing through their eyes, as there is a more complex reality to what simply appears on the images that lights up the screen.
“I now live in things my eyes look at. I become an olive tree, wheel of a slow cart…”