Film Commission Torino Piemonte

The story is based on the true diary of one of the cult's followers, police testimonies, court depositions, and audio surveillance of the sect led by the cult leader Basmagi. The protagonist and her mother are portrayed by actresses to protect the victims' privacy from potential repercussions by still active cells of the cult. Actress Maria Roveran, who has lived in a religious community, lends her voice and presence to Alice (a reference to Lewis Carroll's classic) who plunges into the abyss of her traumatized memory. The spaces within the farmhouse she wanders through depict the visual topography of her subconscious, where she encounters ghosts from the past. The narrative leads up to the central room dominated by Basmagi, the magician of toxic relationships par excellence. Photographic archives, documentary footage, VHS recordings, and family records constitute Alice's "memory box," a visual and dramaturgical device. Animated interventions (cf. the artist Donato Sansone) illustrate Alice's emotional universe in its marvelous monstrosity, overlaid on the world beyond the gate. The 4:3 shooting format harks back to the television monitors of the 1990s, the medium of the imaginary in our story. As Alice reconstructs the past, she gains awareness of the nature of the monster: is it outside of her (locked in the darkness beyond the gate) or is it a black hole within her, within each of us?