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La Vita Nuova

A provincial cult spins out of control when its fabled prophet suddenly shows up.

synopsis

La Vita Nuova is a spiritual movement set in a village in Northern Italy. Its self appointed leader Franco runs weekly sessions in which the members are subjected to a confused repertoire of New Age techniques that he claims were taught to him long ago by a fabled prophet called Dr. Yoni. Among La Vita Nuova members, the most assertive believer is Pia, a nurse who hopes to find love and catharsis by following Franco’s preachings. Pia’s best friend is Onelio, a cynical man who comes to the hospital to get his weekly dialysis treatment. Onelio believes Franco is an impostor and tries to talk Pia out of La Vita Nuova. The situation could keep going on like this forever, until one day Dr. Yoni suddenly shows up in town. As the prophet turns out to be quite different from how Franco had described him, everyone is forced to question their own beliefs and fight for what ultimately matters.

Director’statement

This story is a celebration of life in its tragicomic fullness. It is a story of humans looking for a way to be happy in dire circumstances. It is a tale about finding belief in a wasteland. We decided to use a spiritual movement as the microcosm of the film. Cult members are by nature unsatisfied people who are looking for new answers. They also have to make a huge act of faith in order to believe in something that is considered nonsensical by the world outside. Working with them allowed us to explore two important themes: faith and power. We then juxtaposed the big, existential claims of the spiritual movement with the trivial day-to-day life of an Italian village, in which everybody knows each other. We populated it with three fragile and profoundly human characters: a door-to-door salesman that wants to be a guru, a nurse who joins the movement to solve her love problems, an cynical man who criticizes the spiritual movement but deep down wishes he could believe in it. The story followed naturally, showing us that life can be wrong and deceiving, but will never cease to amaze us and make us smile.

TFL PROGRAMME:
ScriptLab 2015
Discover more details here:
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TFL Catalogue 2015

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