IDDU

“Matteo is the reluctant prince of an empty, absurd world: the mirror that reflects an entire people, but that mirror only reflects the emptiness the people splash around in, though they think it’s a large sea, sparkling in the sun, blessed by the gods. A black comedy, tragic and absurd, which starts off with the different storytelling styles used for the two main characters. Catello is an exuberant jester, a windbag, a comedic persona whose cheerful lack of morals is grotesque, sublime, and endearing, while Matteo’s story is more claustrophobic as it probes his infantile, pathological narcissism. There’s a correlation, structurally and thematically speaking, and a sensory and chromatic one as well, in the evolution of Catello’s identity and that of Matteo. A decanting between their two worlds, due to their written correspondence, and a gradual reconnection between the two different storytelling styles that steps up the pace of the plot, intertwines the two characters’ fates, and serves up the finale, in which Catello inexorably winds up trapped in the same deadly dimension as Matteo Massimo Denaro.” (Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza)

Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza made their directing debut in 2013, with the film Salvo, which triumphed at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, winning the Gran Prix and the Prix Révélation. Released in twenty countries, the film also won the Silver Ribbon for Best Cinematography and the Globo d’Oro for Best Actress. In 2017, they were back at Cannes with Sicilian Ghost Story, the opening film at the Critics’ Week. This second film received the Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award for Best Screenplay and went on to win a David di Donatello for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as two Silver Ribbons, for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design. Sicilian Letters was tapped for the competition lineup at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.