Goran (English)
A Bosnian hitman, orphaned during the war in the former Yugoslavia, engages in a conversation at the bar with the target he has been hired to kill. Although his profession forbids him from socializing with his victims, the killer confides in him how the traumas caused by the conflict have led him to develop a thirst for vengeance against the world. This thirst not only fuels his continued work as a killer, but also prevents him from making room for emotions—despite the inner void that increasingly resembles oblivion.
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Luigi Di DomenicoWriter
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Project Type:Screenplay, Short Script
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Number of Pages:9
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Language:English
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First-time Screenwriter:No
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Student Project:No
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Digital Cinema Package:Unavailable
Luigi Di Domenico (Salerno, May 1, 1997) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In 2016, he moved to Rome and attended the course "Directing and the Idea" at the digital creativity school Artithesi, where he studied under director Claudio Di Biagio and assistant director Riccardo Quarta. His work primarily focuses on social issues.
He made his debut in 2018 with the short film Martino, which was screened at around 30 international festivals and ranked among the 50 most awarded short films of the year according to cinemaitaliano.info.
In 2022, he presented Yohiro at the 76th edition of the Salerno International Film Festival. The film later received the award for Best Italian Film at the Barcelona Indie Awards.
That same year, he worked as the official videographer for the Italian Rugby Federation (FIR), following both the men's and women's national teams during their competitions, including the 2023 Rugby World Cup held in France.
In 2024, he directed his latest short film Marianna, a work of social denunciation that aims to shed light on environmental issues and the right to health.
I write to give voice to what remains unheard. I'm drawn to the silences within people, to unresolved trauma, to the things that carve themselves deep inside without making a sound. My work often begins with an encounter, with a look that stays with me. Goran was born that way.
One evening over dinner, I met a man who had lived through the war in the former Yugoslavia. His eyes didn’t just reflect melancholy—they held a deep, ancient pain, one that had never found space in language. That encounter led me to create a character—a hitman shaped by war—who carries a burden too heavy to bear and yet impossible to let go. Goran lives between two opposing forces: the desire to be free of the past and the need to cling to it in order not to disappear.
This short explores themes of vengeance, memory, and acceptance, without resorting to judgment. I wanted to depict a suspended moment: when killer and victim face each other and recognize a shared fragility. There are no dramatic twists—only a conversation at a bar counter, where words become deadlier than any weapon.
The style is raw, restrained, aiming to reveal the truth of emotions held back. My influences include the intimate, human cinema of Iñárritu and Loznitsa, but I strive for a personal voice—one that doesn’t hide behind aesthetics, but digs into the flesh of feeling.
In a time when everything moves fast and gets forgotten just as quickly, I believe stories like Goran act as quiet resistance. An attempt to stop, look pain in the face, and ask: “What do you want from me?” Writing this short is my way of giving meaning to memory, even when it hurts.
