CECILIA

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Short Film  |  2024  |  Fiction, Drama

(16') 

Writer / Director / Co-Producer / Editor

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After being married against her will, a woman is driven to defend her vow of faith, seeking spiritual strength within a forced domestic environment.

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Based on the story of Saint Cecilia, the short film retells the journey of the early Christian martyr on the first day of her arranged marriage. According to legend, despite taking a personal vow of faith and chastity, Cecilia was forced to marry a man named Valerio. The film visualizes the development and unfolding of the events after the couple’s wedding when an Angel is invoked to protect her vow of faith. Alone in their new home, Cecilia unveils the truth of the arrangement to her husband, facing her circumstances and asserting her faith within a forced domestic environment. A declaration is made: “I will never be your wife”. A clash of wills emerges between the bride and groom. With the help of her guardian Angel, Cecilia will create a sacred miracle, a moment of ecstasy that will transcend her condition.

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The film wants to answer the two following questions: what story could lead to a moment of religious ecstasy? What would this moment look like in moving image? In this film, it is the protagonist’s unwavering faith that elevates her own human circumstance, rising above the material and physical.Although the plot takes inspiration from a specific moment in the life of the catholic Roman saint, I have attempted to abstract the visual world to create a fable-like realm that is both familiar yet not immediately placeable, inviting one to question the symbols embedded in the images and their relevance in our present society. 

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To read more about the project, click here: "On the Ecstasy of Creation" a Catalyst Interview

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