17/08/2023 - Produced by 35mm, the fifth feature film from the Italian director centres on a hikikomori girl locked up in her room, who recovers a meaning for her life thanks to her grandfather, a botanist

Actress Vittoria Chiolero with director Roberto Gasparro on the set of La chiocciola

Filming has ended in the region of Salerno on La Chiocciola, written and directed Roberto Gasparro, which first began filming in Turin. The film was produced by 35mm Produzioni, with the support of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte. The cast includes Enzo Decaro (seen recently in The Hand of God), Vittoria Chiolero, Daniela Freguglia, Massimiliano Rossi (this year in The Commander [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the opening film in Venice), Max Cavallari, Tony Sperandeo, Ilaria Antonello and Mauro Tarantini. 

La chiocciola tackles the topic of the hikikomori, a Japanese term that defines the people who have decided to “stand apart,” to isolate themselves from society (it is estimated that there are several millions such people worldwide). The protagonist is Vittoria, a hikikomori girl aged 15. She spends her time in her own bedroom, taking pictures of people from her window, playing video games, reading comic books and watching videos, scared of the society outside, of its frenzied rhythm, without any real friends. Her inexistent raptors with her divorced parents, her mother a successful businesswoman in the fashion world, and her father transferred to New York, lead the girl to rely only on her grandfather, a botanist ad researcher who lives cut out from the modern times in a small village in Cilento, completely immersed in nature. Francesco has spent a lot of time in the company of Native American tribes, learning from them techniques for permaculture and for the conservation of seeds. Vittoria takes refuge there, in the slow rhythm of the countryside, in the lobe and wisdom of her grandfather, to once again find her balance and recover a meaning for her own life.

This is the director’s fifth feature film (released locally in June 2022, Stessi battiti is now available on Chili TV and Amazon Prime,) and he is working on his first animated feature film, titled Alien Holidays. He dedicates La chiocciola “to our children who have not been able to withstand the pressures of society,” and adds: “we hope that the film can help all the families who are living through this situation to understand it a little better. My goal is only to raise awareness, not to suggest solutions.” The release in Italian cinemas is set for 2024, with distribution by Mediterranea Film.

(Translated from Italian)