A PE teacher moves to a isolated mountain village where the people appear to live in unshakeable serenity, but soon stumbles across a disturbing ritual. Once a week, the locals are freed of their pain by a lonely boy born with the power to heal one's soul just by hugging them. Trying to rescue him from this madness, the man unleashes his dark side.
Cinematography
Mountain isolation so beautiful it feels like a threat.
Acting
Feltri's Matteo—wordless suffering that breaks you.
Direction
Strippoli makes ritual feel inevitable, not sensational.
Director
Paolo Strippoli
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Feltri was cast after Strippoli saw him in a regional theatre production; his physical stillness was non-negotiable.
The film explicitly critiques Italy's rural Catholic folklore tradition, where suffering children often become 'blessed' commodities—think San Guiseppe Moscati cults but darker.
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