Private Project

Fracta

A young woman alone during the COVID years slips into a fragile psychological state, suspended between neurosis and nightmare, only to confront a frightening self, shaped by repetition.

  • Monica Taddei
    Director
    As VFX Crew: Hercules, World War Z, John Carter
  • Luca Zappala
    Writer
    As VFX Supervisor: Palestine 36, Giant, The Creator, Wicked Little Letters, Fate: The Wings Saga, Stranger Things, Living, The Forgiven, Mothering Sunday, SAS: Red Notice, Falling, Avenue 5, Rocketman, The Last Bus, The Nan Movie, etc
  • Monica Taddei
    Writer
    As VFX Crew: Hercules, World War Z, John Carter
  • Luca Zappala
    Producer
    As VFX Supervisor: Palestine 36, Giant, The Creator, Wicked Little Letters, Fate: The Wings Saga, Stranger Things, Living, The Forgiven, Mothering Sunday, SAS: Red Notice, Falling, Avenue 5, Rocketman, The Last Bus, The Nan Movie, etc
  • Hannah Hornsby
    Key Cast
    "Girl A, Girl B"
    Gran Turismo, Doctor Who Guardian, Everything Now
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Thriller
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 41 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 28, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, Blackmagic
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Monica Taddei

Born into a family of antiquarians and scholars, she was drawn early to storytelling through both words and objects, becoming an obsessive sketcher and an avid reader long before she found her way into film. Now 50, she is a first-time short film director, though she has spent most of her working life in film without quite being allowed inside them.
For 15 years, she worked in post-production, learning structure, rhythm, and the invisible architecture of storytelling. It was a place where craft mattered deeply, but authorship was harder to claim. Over time, the distance between shaping stories and having a voice within them became too wide, and she stepped away-not from the love of the work itself, but from an environment that didn’t make space for her to grow into it. It was also a culture of long hours and narrow, predefined pathways.

She left when her son Leo arrived, mostly out of a decision to be present in a way that felt active and joyful, not just dutiful. During those years, she kept writing notes, fragments, ideas that didn’t yet have a form but refused to disappear.
During the COVID period, she became a teacher for her son, then 6 years old, for about a year and a half, adapting again, learning how to hold attention and shape experience in a completely different way. After that, life narrowed and deepened as she took on the role of caregiver for her parents, both living with severe dementia. Through all of this work, pauses, care, exhaustion-she continued writing.

Her first short film comes out of that accumulation: of time slightly out of sync with an industry, of stories observed from the edges, of persistence without clear permission. It is also the result of a close creative partnership. The film is produced and co-written with her partner Luca Zappala, who recognised the potential in the work early on and, with resourcefulness and determination, helped build a production from almost nothing. Working with a near-zero budget, he brought together a group of highly skilled, talented people-all of whom, due to the industry slowdown during the directors’ strike, had the rare availability to say yes.
The film feels less like a debut and more like the visible surface of something long in the making.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

It's strange how a narrative about being broken and lost, fragmented, lonely, has been cobbled together carefully, knowingly, crafted and glued piece by piece by people scattered across different countries and from three continents.
After the years of COVID and its isolation, the film writers' strike, with its imposed break from work, and the feeling that the whole world was deconstructing, there was a need to craft something.
Luca, the producer, and I (we are together and we have a son) had to come up with a script for a short and raise a budget. But raising the money would have created a delay.
Turned out that what seemed to be a difficulty was actually an advantage because the whole world upheaval had created gaps between projects, and incredibly talented people suddenly had some time to spare. We knew such skilled people would not be available for long, so we had to act quickly. An amazing small crew and the talent of Hannah Hornsby trusted us with their time, and the script was written in such a way that we should film in a few days, using what we had, no complications, no delays.
Hannah joined us first, then Rami Bartholdy, Jack Sabrosa, and Finella Fan. Filming was fast but intense.
Luca doubled as Visual Effects supervisor and department; with decades of experience across feature films and episodic work, including projects recognised with major industry awards and nominations, he was able to deliver smart, high-quality cost-effective visual effects.

Then we were very lucky to be joined by Daniel De Villers, Michel Smith and Reece Coetzer from South Africa, and colour and sound gave a different edge and life to the short.

This is a project carefully crafted and cobbled together, pieces sewn together, by a group of people from 3 continents with practically zero budget. The whole opposite of the word Fracta, which means broken and speaks of loneliness and being in pieces.

Nicole Lee joined us last, a talented young Taiwanese film composer who crafted the music scene by scene, moment by moment. The last crowning touch was Nicole having the European Recording Orchestra of Sofia (38 pieces) performing her original tracks to be used in the film.

A project that started scribbled on the back of our son's school homework ended up bringing together people and skills from all over the world.