Film Commission Torino Piemonte

The initial inspiration for this story originates in the small town of Vejano, the very place that gave life to our previous films. In Vejano, they used to elect the "mayor for a day," and Valentino, a man of small stature, won this title for thirty-two consecutive years. On election day, Valentino was carried on the back of a pickup truck, welcomed like a king, and applauded by the entire town. Within the folds of Italian folklore history, we discovered similarities and ancient roots in this small, whimsical tradition. These elements, which allude to the carnival tradition and the subversion of the status quo in direct relation to the dream of redemption for the poor and marginalized, inspired us to translate this modern episode into a fairy tale.

In this story, Valentino is an orphan raised in seclusion in a tower. The forgotten son of a king, when the king summons him to court on his deathbed, his life becomes a picaresque adventure, a dark fable in which he finds himself at the mercy of wicked people and forces opposed to the utopia that the king, through his forgotten heir, had wanted to bring to the kingdom. In this tale, Valentino is an orphan raised in seclusion in a tower. The forgotten son of a king, when summoned to court on the king's deathbed, his life transforms into a picaresque adventure - a dark fable where he becomes entangled in the clutches of malevolent individuals and forces diametrically opposed to the utopia that the king, through his overlooked heir, had envisioned for the kingdom.  The narrative unfolds around a very essential dichotomy: on one side, an intimate journey guided by the innocent gaze of the protagonist, gradually corrupted by the society that has always excluded him; on the other hand, the social and political allegory underlying the world in which Valentino experiences his adventures.  The two paths intertwine when Valentino's redemption story reveals the progressive disintegration of his values as a marginalized individual, reminiscent to the "state of nature," in the face of the harsh reality of the ordinary world. A world where the individual imparts value to the community, following a pattern akin to the contemporary model. Thus, the parable of the small man in a too-large world becomes a vehicle for themes such as human duality, the coexistence of good and evil, and the significance of appearance in a world without God, universal truths, or justice.