Film Off17 | Italian First and Second Feature Film Competition
Orfeo
YEAR: 2025
First Film
Director: Virgilio Villoresi
Italy 2025
Running Time: 74′ Italian, Eng. Subtitles
Production: Fantasmagoria, with the support of the Ministry of Culture
Cast: Luca Vergoni, Giulia Maenza, Aomi Muyock, Vinicio Marchioni
Screenplay: Alberto Fornari, Virgilio Villoresi
Cinematography: Marco Depa
Editing: Virgilio Villoresi
Set Design: Riccardo Carelli, Federica Locatelli
Costume Design: Sara Costantini
Music: Angelo Trabace
Sound: Enrico Ascoli, Davide Favargiotti
Visual Effects: Giulia Gaia Bombelli, Daniele Iacuitto
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Meet the Audience: Director Virgilio Villoresi
SYNOPSIS
Since childhood, Orfeo has imagined fantastic stories around an abandoned villa across from his home—a place shrouded in unresolved legends. A solitEuraand visionary pianist, one evening at the Polypus—the club where he regularly plays—he locks
eyes with Eura. A powerful, absolute love is born, yet she hides an unspeakable secret. Perhaps an illness, perhaps something deeper. One day, Eura suddenly vanishes, swallowed by an absence Orfeo cannot explain.
One evening, from his apartment window, Orfeo sees her slipping through a small door on Via Saterna, right in front of the abandoned villa. Shaken, he tries to follow her. Before crossing the threshold, he meets a mysterious figure—the Green Man—
who seems to know the secrets of that door. Once inside, Orfeo finds himself in an imaginative and unsettling afterlife, inhabited by forest creatures such as the Melusines, the Forest Magician, and eerie parades of military skeletons.
In the heart of the villa, he encounters the Coat, a devilish guardian who takes possession of his body to relive, through music, lost memories and torments of love. Then the Coat slips away and reveals where Eura is: at the train station, about to depart forever, on a train resting upon Orfeo’s own piano. Only one door—on the music stand—will open at midnight and can lead him back.
Orfeo arrives just in time to see her once more. But Eura cannot cross that threshold. They say goodbye one last time. Upon waking, in front of the door on Via Saterna, Orfeo finds her ring between his fingers. He returns home, sits at the piano, and plays for her. Because now he knows that Eura will continue to live—in his memories, in his dreams, and in his music.
Since childhood, Orfeo has imagined fantastic stories around an abandoned villa across from his home—a place shrouded in unresolved legends. A solitEuraand visionary pianist, one evening at the Polypus—the club where he regularly plays—he locks
eyes with Eura. A powerful, absolute love is born, yet she hides an unspeakable secret. Perhaps an illness, perhaps something deeper. One day, Eura suddenly vanishes, swallowed by an absence Orfeo cannot explain.
One evening, from his apartment window, Orfeo sees her slipping through a small door on Via Saterna, right in front of the abandoned villa. Shaken, he tries to follow her. Before crossing the threshold, he meets a mysterious figure—the Green Man—
who seems to know the secrets of that door. Once inside, Orfeo finds himself in an imaginative and unsettling afterlife, inhabited by forest creatures such as the Melusines, the Forest Magician, and eerie parades of military skeletons.
In the heart of the villa, he encounters the Coat, a devilish guardian who takes possession of his body to relive, through music, lost memories and torments of love. Then the Coat slips away and reveals where Eura is: at the train station, about to depart forever, on a train resting upon Orfeo’s own piano. Only one door—on the music stand—will open at midnight and can lead him back.
Orfeo arrives just in time to see her once more. But Eura cannot cross that threshold. They say goodbye one last time. Upon waking, in front of the door on Via Saterna, Orfeo finds her ring between his fingers. He returns home, sits at the piano, and plays for her. Because now he knows that Eura will continue to live—in his memories, in his dreams, and in his music.
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September 21
MASSIMO THEATRE HALL
TIME: 10:00 PM
TIME: 10:00 PM
Meet the audience: Director Virgilio Villoresi
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