Beloved
2022
Cast & Crew
Irene Gianeselli
screenplay and direction
Giose Brescia
Director of Photography
Sara Porfido
Editor
Irene Gianeselli
Music
with the original song
Alma diletta (Beloved)
written and performed by Irene Gianeselli (voice and piano)
arranged by Irene Gianeselli, Valerio Rivieccio
produced by Irene Gianeselli, Valerio Rivieccio (Kurs Studio)
Released on: 2022-11-21
Cris
(Cristiana Berardini)
Illustrator
​
With
Irene Gianeselli (Cecilia Capece Minutolo)
and with
Giose Brescia (Giovanni Enriquez)
Synopsis
A young woman goes through her own loneliness, reconstructing the sense of the bond with her land and with love. Perhaps it is she, Cecilia Capace Minutolo - the Princess of Squinzano and poetess who in 1699 at the age of 18 married Giovanni Enriquez Marquis of Campi Salentina – who returns to the places of her life. But his time cannot be reconciled both with the story that seems suspended and with the apparent immobility that agitates the olive trees sick with Xylella.
The wind of the exhausted summer marks the unresolved passage of love between the churches and the votive shrines on the side of the streets that listen to a new and ancient song lost in a tear.
Director's statement
The love story between Cecilia Capece Minutolo and her husband is emotional: from the end of 1600 we receive her “Odes" in memory of the lost husband. A kind of verses full of a sacred and high sense of love which, lived in this way, seems to be an irreconcilable feeling with our time. The fall of our tenderness as human beings lies into the violence that returns and increases its abandonments, in the past that we could not or did not want to elaborate and for this reason has no peace, and in the environmental disaster that phagocytes sick trees and people. But we can still dream, we don't know for how long, and if cinema is a dream, then at least in this space we should look our voice to take a stand against the refusal of the past and the loss of meaning.
We can still choose a love that resembles us and that takes our hand even and above all when we limp in the street.
Awards and Nominations
In concorso per il Premio David di Donatello 2023
In concorso alla XXIII Edizione del Festival del Cinema Europeo di Lecce 2022 (prima proiezione assoluta)
Semi - Finalist New York International Women Film Festival 2022 (Best Actress)
Finalist Rome Outcast International Film Festival 2022
Semi - Finalist Sydney Indie Short Festival 2022
Best director and Honorable Mention - Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival 2022
Best actress Swedish International Film Festival 2022
Best Women's Film Beyond the Curve International Film Festival 2022
Best Actress Paris Film Awards 2022
LA Independent Women Film Awards 2023 (Nominee)
Best Original Soundtrack Cannes Continental Film Festival 2023
Official selection Santa Fe Independent Film Festival 2023
Finalist - Metropolis Film Festival 2023
Nominee Festival del Cinema di Cefalù 2023
Official selection Mediterraneo Film Festival 2023
Official selection Figari International Short Film Festival MKT 2023
Semi-Finalist Alta Marea Film Festival 2023
Selezione Fuori Bif&st (Bari International Film Festival) 2023​
Official selection Mottola Short Film Festival 2023
Honorable Mention Castel Lagopesole Short International Film Festival 2023
Best Actress 8 & HalFilm Awards 2023
Best European Short Film 8 & HalFilm Awards 2023
Honorable Mention Panorama Internazionale 2023/24
Best Original Screenplay Panorama Internazionale 2023/24
Official Selection South Italy International Film Festival 2024
Semi-Finalist FilmHaus 2024 (Best Short Film, Best Experimental Film, Best Newcomer Director, Best Drama)