Horizons / La valle dei sorrisi / Italy, Slovenia 2025
If we could rid ourselves of all our pains, would we still be ourselves? The film’s broken, traumatized protagonist comes to teach at a high school in a small mountain village where everyone seems suspiciously happy. He soon learns that it is all thanks to fifteen-year-old Matteo and his supernatural gift. Filled with intense music and visuals that recall the tradition of Italy’s giallo genre, The Holy Boy is an allegorical exploration of loss, fatherhood, adolescence, and the freedom of the individual versus the needs of the collective. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Vít Kořínek
123 min / Color, DCP
Director Paolo Strippoli
/ Screenplay Jacopo Del Giudice, Paolo Strippoli, Milo Tissone
/ Dir. of Photography Cristiano Di Nicola
/ Music Federico Bisozzi, Davide Tomat
/ Sound Francesco Morosini
/ Editor Federico Palmerini
/ Art Director Marcello Di Carlo, Susanna Mastroianni
/ Producer Domenico Procacci, Laura Paolucci, Ines Vasilevic, Stefano Sardo, Jožko Rutar, Miha Černec
/ Production Fandango, Vision Distribution, Nightswim
/ Coproduction Spok, Sky
/ Sales Fandango
Paolo Strippoli. Filmography: A Classic Horror Story (2021), Flowing (Piove, 2022), L’estranea (2025), The Holy Boy (La valle dei sorrisi, 2025).
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