Giulio has just turned eighteen and lives in the country with his parents. Once again he will spend the summer with his family, without ever leaving his home. In the house next door, uninhabited for years, Lia, a bold, grumpy and introverted twenty-year-old girl, arrives. Lia starts Giulio into some strange and increasingly dangerous games. Giulio is deeply attracted to her, but he still hasn't understood what she's hiding in that old abandoned house, where no one is allowed to enter.
International TitleThe Den Year of production 2021 Length 90min Country Italy Shooting Format Digital Aspect Ratio 1.37:1 Dialogue Italian
DirectorBeatrice Baldacci Producer Andrea Gori, Aurora Alma Bartiromo ProductionLumen Films Writer Edoardo Puma, Beatrice Baldacci Cinematographer Giorgio Giannoccaro Editor Isabella Guglielmi Production Designer Raffaele Lucci MusicValentino Orciuolo Sound Design Francesco Murano Costume Designer Ginevra Angiuli Story Editor for Lumen Films Andrea Paolo Massara Cast Irene Vetere, Lorenzo Aloi, Hélène Nardini, Elisa Di Eusanio, Paolo Ricci, Federico Rosati
Developed within the Biennale College Cinema programme 2020/21
Director's Statement When I first thought of the film, I saw the image of a house in the countryside, a safe haven in which to take refuge.
In that enchanting place, Giulio and Lia play with their bodies, exploring the fragile boundaries between love, death and violence, trying to find their way into the unknown. Each gives the other what they can give. This encounter pushes them to face their fears and make them grow. Pain is the mysterious force that unites them.
The Den is not a concrete and real place, but that space where we go hiding ourselves when we don’t feel well. And where we hope someone will come searching for us.
