FRARÍA (Spark) by Alberto Diana
Synopsis
Angelo is 15 years old and lives in a small village in the mountains of southern Sardinia. He spends his days with his best friend Bastiano, his age. Angelo is very shy and is teased about his older brother Agostino’s disability. He cannot defend himself and wishes he could show more self-confidence, like the charismatic Bastiano. Life flows in an apparent rural tranquillity, but the quietness of the village is undermined by certain events: Agostino and his wife Nina are targeted by village bullies while working in their workshop. Agostino endures the harassment to protect his family, but fears that this attitude will not be enough in the long run. On the night of the festival, as the villagers celebrate in the town square in front of a bonfire, Angelo will no longer be able to hide in the face of humiliation and will have to learn to choose sides.
Technical Details
- Year: 2023
- Genre: Drama
- Production Countries: Italy
- Runtime: 18′
- Original Language: Italian, Sardinian
- Subtitles: English
- Color: Color
- Shooting Locations: Sardinia
Crew
- Director: Alberto Diana
- Script: Alberto Diana
- Director of Photography: Francesco Piras
- Production Designer: Luca Noce
- Costume Designers: Stefania Grilli, Salvatore Aresu
- Sound: Roberto Cois
- Editor: Davide Orru
- Music: Paolo Angeli
- Sound Designer: Massimiliano Borghesi
- Producer: ISRE – Istituto Superiore Regionale Etnografico
- Production Manager: Emanuel Cossu
- Executive Producer: Manuela Buono – Slingshot Films
Cast
Leonardo Schirò, Pietro Burrai, Davide Grillo, Daniela Vitellaro, Andrea Melis, Daniele Podda, Pierluigi Cabras
Festivals
- Torino Film Festival
- Giornate del cinema del Mediterraneo
- Passaggi d’autore
- Valsusa Film Festival
- Premio Fare Memoria ANPI
- Figari Film Festival
- Mecal – Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes de Barcelona
- Edera Film Festival
- Andaras Film Festival
- Svaneti International Film Festival
- Salento International Film Festival – Best Italian Short
- Voghera Film Festival – Best Photography
- Limbas de minoria – Premio Parla corto! Giovani e cortometraggi in lingue minoritarie
- Give Peace a Screen
- Front Doc
Director
Alberto Diana was born in Sardinia (Italy) in 1989. After graduating in History from the University of Cagliari, he attended a Master’s degree in Creative Documentary at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, studying with Marta Andreu and Marie Pierre Duhamel. He collaborated with Catalan directors such as Neus Ballús and Jose Luis Guerin. His short documentary films have been screened in many national and international film festivals. In 2019, he returned to Sardinia to shoot his feature documentary Fango rosso (Red Mud), selected at the 37th Torino Film Festival. Since 2021, he has been developing the script for his first fiction feature Intra Montes, produced by Slingshot Film (ITA) and Lilith Films (FR). Frarìa (Spark) is his first short fiction film, premiering at the 41st Torino Film Festival.
