A time that covers four seasons and a mysterious location, the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome, in the shadow of the Pyramid of Cestius. The main protagonists? Briciola, Pupo, Brontolo, Orazio. Then Alemao, Houdini, Gary Cooper, Jefferson ... They are part of the largest cat colony in Rome and live among bushes, funerary monuments and tombs, the resting places of romantic poets such as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley rather than the Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso, to name a few. Gramsci, Camilleri and Napolitano are among the best-known ltalians buried here. Cats have been living in the Cemetery since Pope Clement Xl aliowed the first burial of the protestant members of the Stuart Court in exile from England in 1716. Many non-catholics would come after that. Under the tali Mediterranean pines, the cemetery's director, a true 'gattara romana', the cats' vet, and a Buddhist photographer guide us into the world of the enigmatic protagonists of the most important feline colony in town.

We want to teli the story of one of the most important open-air museums in the world, the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome (also known as the English Cemetery or Protestant Cemetery) through the cats that are the undisputed protagonists of the piace: they inhabit it, they "watch over" it, they attend funeral ceremonies, they "console" the relatives of the deceased, they act as a silent bridge between the earthly and the celestial. They are true witnesses of eternity. In our film the cats are at the center and the humans discover them from different perspectives: the director of the Cemetery, the head of the feline colony, the photographer who returns to visit it after 30 years. We want to develop the idea of syncretism that is at the center of this Cemetery and that is superbly interpreted by the "wisdom" of cats. We intend to work on the sensuality, beauty and metaphysics of the piace, proposing a refined entertainment that reveals a unique reality, "planted" in the middle of the city of Rome. 

Director
Stefano Tealdi
Story
Edoardo Fracchia
Screenplay
Edoardo Fracchia
Film Editor
Diego Volpi, Riccardo Chiriotto (assistente)
Original Music
Andrea Gattico
Sound
Paolo Favaro (Sound Design, Mix)
Altri credits

Anna Cerrocchi (Grafiche); Imago FX (Color Grading); Videodelta (Consulenza voce narrante)

Production Director
Federico Minetti
Organizzatore generale
Elena Filippini
Executive production
Effendem Film
Producer
Elena Filippini
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Piemonte Doc Film Fund - sviluppo giugno 2024
Assistente di produzione
Andrea Ventura
Last update: 20 September 2024