A hieratic Count sits in his elegant mansion finishing his writings - Alphonse, a young Waloon officer, rides through the Murgia to reach his regiment in Naples but soon finds himself mysteriously detained at a inn in the strange and varied company of thieves, brigands, cabalists, noblemen, coquettes and gypsies, whose stories he records over ten days. A range of situations in stories-within-stories, which, like the Decameron and Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, provide entertainment on an epic scale. The two men's destiny intertwined, it is difficult to know who's real between the two and who belongs to the other's mind. This is a journey for both of them which Alphonse will continue, uncertain in the end, if his experiences were real or a dream.
Production
Lavish period design that whispers 'we spent the entire budget on candles.'
Writing
Nested narratives so tangled you'll need a flowchart and possibly therapy.
Director
Alberto Rondalli
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart
Alfonso Van Worden
Jordi Mollà
Jan Potocki / Diego Hervas
Pilar López de Ayala
Rebecca
Alessio Boni
Pietro Di Oria
Flavio Bucci
Vecchio Moreno
Caterina Murino
Principessa M. S.
Valentina Cervi
Ines
Marco Foschi
Blas Hervas
Camilla Diana
Celia
Ivan Franěk
Thibaud
Umberto Orsini
Belial
Alessandro Haber
Cornandez
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Jan Potocki's unfinished 1810 novel 'The Manuscript Found in Saragossa,' a cult classic of nested narratives that influenced everyone from Calvino to Wes Anderson's story-within-story obsession.
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart plays both the dreamer and potentially the dreamed—casting one actor for dual 'realities' wasn't in the original novel but visually seals the identity collapse.
IT
