AGNOSIA

To reality one adapts. Lui lives, knows and full-fills himself in an illusory and virtual replica of reality, where all social interaction doesn’t actually take place.
Agnosia, his antagonist, forces one not to know nor to leave. The Greeks would call it a-gnosis "not knowing", it is the disturbance of perception that disrupts the five senses, changing the one thing that technically cannot be discussed: objectivity.

We are in a dystopian reality in which social interactions take place in virtual rooms, accessed through the use of an augmented reality visors. A plague, for the past 20 years, forces and restricts people to stay indoors.

Lui has always been determined to study and learn about the outside world, diminishing his technological oppression. Parents, friends, and partner, however, remain attached to this everyday life, which they take for granted to the point that they don’t even feel the burden any more.
The death of the antagonist creates discussion and justifies its will; limits are non-existing as long as there is an alternative. Fascinated by the possibilities the outside world offers, Lui decides to explore it.

As in Plato's "Myth of the Cave," Lui ventures into the woods pursuing the knowledge that lies beyond the boundaries of his virtual experience. As he goes deeper into the trees, his curiosity turns into a kind of ecstasy, a thrill of discovery that completely overwhelms him. In this state of wonder, Lui gets metaphorically lost, letting himself be carried away by the thirst for knowledge, forgetting all reference to time and space. The forest becomes his universe, a place where his experiences merge with tangible reality, opening new doors toward understanding the world around him.

  • Tommaso Perletti
    Director
  • Tommaso Perletti
    Writer
  • Damiano Lepri
    Key Cast
    "Lui"
  • Michele Vairo
    Cinematographer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    AGNOSIA
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Dystopic, Sci-fi
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 59 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 17, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - NABA Milano
Director Biography - Tommaso Perletti

Tommaso Perletti was born and raised in Milan, where he still lives. He recently finished the three-year course in Media Design and Multimedia Arts at NABA in Milan, presenting as his thesis "The Algorithm that Killed Reality," a dissertation that explores the combination of philosophical, ethical and social topics, focusing on the analysis of the impact of new media on individuals' perception of reality.
He has always been passionate about acting, Tommaso approached the industry himself by attending workshops and courses in theatrical technique. In 2019 he was called by Cinecittà studios in Rome to take part as a figuration in Marco Filiberti's Parsifal. There he discovered the director's role on a film set and it was love at first sight.
In discovering this form of expression, Tommaso found the freedom to be authentic, being able to break down his own inner feelings and thoughts, making them accessible to the viewer through metaphors and games of images.
From Cinecittà onwards he continued to work on more and less professional sets, as a production assistant, camera assistant or electric, grinding out hours of experience and interfacing almost daily with this reality. Today Tommaso is working at a Milan-based production agency and is mainly involved in the production of secondary content for projects under the agency's charge.

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Director Statement

During the lockdown period, we all found ourselves living inside our "caves," our homes. This situation limited our reality to four walls and a "virtual window", the screen of the devices that allowed us to maintain social relationships and live a networked life.
Just as the flame in Plato's myth allowed the projection of shadows onto the walls of the cave, the screens of our devices have projected images onto the walls of our homes, providing us access to a distorted reality, influencing us with "virtual shadows" based on the user's personalized experience.
From the title to the content, Agnosia is an overt modern reference to Plato's myth of the cave that aims to make us reflect on the possible consequences of the constantly increasing overuse of modern information and communication media.
It is the necessary search for a reality compatible with personal wills and values, in a world where moral and coherent ones are hard to be found.