Private Project

2020: Milano Lockdown Manifesto

A dreamlike journey into a harsh, new reality. 2020: Milan is under lockdown. A performative and subdued cry tries to dig through what remains of the conscience of the most. A gloomy tale, narrated by international musician Ella Vos, describes the feeling of paranoid, generalised uncertainty. The performer, in a suit, her face covered by a gas mask, travels through the deserted streets of Milan to arrive in front of the basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where is Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. A succession of movements and awakenings, in the desolate reality of a city that tries to make its desperate cry heard. Only trams and ambulances pass by, while everyone is locked inside wondering how this will end. A short film shot during the Covid 19 quarantine with a smartphone, mounted remotely, set to music in a different country by a group of people working each from their homes.

  • Silvia Bertocchi
    Director
  • Silvia Bertocchi
    Writer
  • Shirly Fein
    Producer
  • Silvia Bertocchi
    Key Cast
    "Self"
    The Broken Key, Credo in un solo padre
  • Ella Vos
    Key Cast
    "Narrator"
    White Noise, You Don't Know About Me
  • Alessandra Cernic
    Editor
    L'ultima rima, Effetto Domino
  • Matteo Spedicati
    Composer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 11 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 30, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    English, Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • REDSTRING
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Silvia Bertocchi

Silvia Bertocchi was born in Cagliari (Sardegna) in 1993. She lives and works in Milan, Italy. She began studying ballet in her childhood, and she has never stopped writing stories and poems. She moved to Milan where she studied drama at the ''Quelli di Grock'' school.  Silvia has collaborated with magazines such as GQ and Rolling Stone as an author. An actress, she appeared in the Independent films 'The Broken Key'' with Geraldine Chaplin and Rutger Hauer, and in  ''Credo in un solo padre'' for which she also painted a cover for the movie. Meanwhile, she continued  work on her personal projects.2019 is the time of ''InumanAnomaliA'' a personal exhibition of paint and materic works, introduced with the performance and installation POETRYSUITE. In March 2020 during the COVID-19 Emergency in Milan, Silvia presented her multidisciplinary work SORTECERTA at Triennale Milano joining the ''Decameron - storie in streaming'' project.

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Director Statement

2020: Milan Lockdown Manifesto was born as a need for a reaction in an era of stasis. Starting from the impossibility to put together a crew during the Corona virus emergency, I developed the story shot with an iPhone using dawn’s light in Milan during the second week of a long quarantine. Images supported by a very incisive voice over monologue expertly enhanced by the voice of American musician Ella Vos and by the electronic track of the musician Matteo Spedicati, who in the meantime is passing his quarantine in Brooklyn NY. The theater of the performance is the S.Ambrogio neighborhood with his basilica that contains the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, who died iin Milan 500 years ago. Scenes outside the maximum security prison of San Vittore, a few steps from the church, alternate with scenes of movement that seem to explain more than words. Yellow rubber gloves that beat on the characteristic terracotta-colored bricks, gas mask, black suit. I violated the quarantine in the most critical moment, empty streets and desolation in the air, to create testimony of how art can resist any tragedy of mankind, starting from the movement of the body avoiding a lockdown of the soul.