Balletto di guerra (first feature)

original title:

Balletto di guerra

directed by:

screenplay:

cinematography:

set design:

costume design:

production:

country:

Italy

year:

2005

format:

colour

In an Eastern country ravaged by the echoes of war, Gilda, a very young ballerina has won a scholarship for the West. She is happy. The future is full of possibilties. In the morning she wakes up and goes to practice at the theatre. But she is late. She decides to take a shortcut which is through an abandoned warehouse, and it is here that Destiny awaits.
It is in this same warehouse, that several trucks are carrying refugees with the intent of escaping to the West. Gilda ends up being thrown into these trucks, and finds herself with the other women who have paid money in exchange for the journey and a job. For her, and for them, it is the beginning of an Odyssey marked by violence and prostitution. To be put up for auction and sold as a sex slave.
Vito's path runs parallel to this. He has decided to embark on the business venture of the moment: transport refugees towards the West.
Having had a short lived childhood, he naively confuses sex, money and fun. So much so, that as the events unfold, it is this side of him which leads him to try and save Gilda. He is kind, he helps her, and at times runs to her defense.
But the impact with the surrounding reality soon clears up certain ideas. There is no time for feeling sympathetic let alone having feelings. So in the end, after having saved her, it is he that will in turn sell her back to the sex traders.