Private Project

CARTAPESTA: CARNIVAL OF FANO - THE MOVIE

Italy’s oldest Carnival, memories, footages, a very powerful imagery rooted over the centuries in one city: Fano. A tradition, that of papier-mâché, and its float masters who, generation after generation, have been able to blend creativity, engineering and manual skills to build those traveling stages called floats. A character, named Vulón, encountering a child. He doesn’t know anything about the Carnival of Fano. No one better than a Carnival mask to walk him around through parades, costumes and sweets and to tell him that after all, Carnival is more than a simple celebration: it’s a feeling, a state of mind that warms the heart of a city and of the territory around. And while the carnival week is getting to an end, somebody is up and ready for a new beginning…

  • Andrea Lodovichetti
    Director
  • Luca Caprara
    Writer
  • Andrea Lodovichetti
    Writer
  • Andrea Lodovichetti
    Producer
  • Francesco Appoggetti
    Producer
  • Francesco Appoggetti
    Producer
  • Simone Diotallevi
    Key Cast
    "Vulón"
  • Edoardo Davide Pignataro
    Key Cast
    "Ninìn"
  • giovanni Furlani
    cinematography
  • Eugenio Cinti Luciani
    cinematography
  • Nicola Nicoletti
    Editing
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Other
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 29 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    130,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    4K
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • LOBECAFILM
    Distributor
    Country: Italy
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Andrea Lodovichetti

Andrea Lodovichetti was born in Fano in 1976. He graduated in film directing at the National Film School CSC in Rome, he has worked as assistant director for Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino. Film director, author and screenwriter, in his career he has won a Golden Globe and more than 80 awards and honors worldwide.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

CARTAPESTA is a kind of story about the transformation of collective memory, a journey that explores the subtle boundaries between a real experience and mythical imagination. The heart of this story is an exploration of the Carnival of Fano, the city where I was born, not only as a long-standing tradition (according to some documents its origin dates back to 1347), but as a living organism of the cultural consciousness that runs through the stories handed down between generations.

Allegorical floats become something more than simple artworks; they are living archives, three-dimensional narrations giving voice to the subdued stories of a community. Every mask is an interweaving of identities, layers of meanings carefully crafted, where the boundaries between the individual and the community blend into a fascinating dance of cultural expression. We have tried to create a delicate balance, where the boundaries between reality and fiction dissolve like fragile papier-mâché sculptures. Current times are intertwined with the echoes of the past where imagination becomes a bright thread bringing together different times in a “transcendent” narrative texture.

This project does not claim to be exhaustive, and that’s because the essence of narration does not lie in analytical and comprehensive documentation, but rather in the endless act of dreaming. We surrender to the inexhaustible source of creative imagination, aware that true artistic expression is an ongoing dialogue between memory and possibility: we’re constantly fascinated by the ineffable beauty that arises when tradition, creativity and the human spirit meet in their purest, most spontaneous and natural manifestation: the Carnival one.