Freely inspired by real events, Château La Belle is the story of an asylum in the Alps in the 1960s where women were lobotomized, raped and impregnated in order to make a business out of selling babies.
Year of production 2025 Length 15' CountrySpain, Italy Shooting Format 2k Aspect Ratio 1:1.85 Dialogue Spanish
DirectorsGianmarco Serra and Simona Nobile Production Company Sultana Films Producer Diego Herguera Writers Gianmarco Serra and Simona Nobile Sound Gianmarco Serra Editor Gianmarco Serra Music Gianmarco Serra
Festival selections MedFilm Festival 2025, Italy -World Premiere
Director's Statement Château la Belle takes inspiration from chronicles of life and abuse in asylums. Its challenging female character-driven story deals with strong, socially relevant themes like psychological and sexual abuse and child trafficking. Until recently, asylums were run by psychiatrists who were not accountable for their methods and experiments, and were inaccessible. Our short film takes inspiration from real stories. Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz performed the first lobotomy in 1936 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949 f or this. At least 100,000 lobotomies have been performed worldwide, mainly on women. In France, the last lobotomy took place in 1984. Our short film is fiction. But in several asylums, reality has often exceeded the level of horror we have decided to dramatize. As screenwriters/directors we want to tell stories that can have a social impact, raise awareness, stir ethical questions and provoke social debate in our contemporary society. We also believe in the power of animation to tackle and elevate difficult, “uncomfortable” issues. Animation is one of our assets. Our Italo-Spanish creative and production team has recently released the award-winning animation feature "Sultana's Dream" – Best Film Awarded at San Sebastián, Annecy, Anima, Animafest Zagreb, EFA nominee, and OSCARS 2025 shortlist – and directed by Isabel Herguera, who is also a creative consultant on this short. We hope you'll find "Château la Belle" visually, artistically and thematically appealing and thought-provoking.
