IL VESTITO (THE SUIT)

The plot

Directed by Maurizio Ravallese

An immigrant works in a laundry to buy a wedding suit. One day he is found stealing a suit from a sick groom who has just been left at the altar. To atone for his sins, he will have to avenge the robbed man.

Director Statement

This isn’t a short film based on social denunciation. It is not even a tearful fairy tale about a good-hearted immigrant who finds fortune. It is only a story about feelings: a brief episode aimed at moving the spectator, while transmitting an element of surprise. The objective is to show that interior turmoil goes beyond racial, ethnic and sexual differences. Therefore, since the story has a universal meaning, I deliberately omitted names of cities or made precise references.

The plot is linear. Firstly, the introduction of the character of Amed. He is a young immigrant who barely speaks Italian and works at a laundry. Secondly, the encounter with Massimo. Amed sees a man in a wedding suit who is throwing up near a car full of white bows. The boy follows the stranger, steals his suit, but when the main tracks him down he confesses to the groom that he is going to get married and so he decides not to hurt him. Finally, the punitive mission that Massimo entrusts Amed with. The boy has to go to a coffee shop, slap a man named Mauro and give him a briefcase containing a mes-sage. The contents of this note will reveal Massimo’s story. Once Amed has carried out his mission, he will receive his reward.

The focus of the story is mainly on Amed played by Danilo Arena. The character of Massimo, played by Christian Iansante, on the other hand, is an antagonist who intentionally remains a figure shrouded in mystery. At the beginning we don’t even see his face. When Amed is caught, Massimo looks death-ly ill. Throughout the rest of the film, the impression given is that he is a negative figure: he appears to be a drug addict who spends his days vomiting and living in a squalid house full of needles. The task he has given Amed doesn’t seem to make any sense and the boy is even mistaken for a terrorist and beaten up. Only after the briefcase has been opened do we find out who Massimo really is: a princess who has been seduced and abandoned. A lonely, sick man who was in love with a hypocrite. It’s the story of a defeated man who punishes his beloved. I wanted to play with the element of surprise con-nected to the character’s homosexuality without turning the idea of diversity into something pathetic. Before the end of film, nothing made us suspect that Massimo was a homosexual. The main idea of the short film is based on the preconceived notion that when we see a wedding car we immediately think of a bride. It never crosses our mind that the bride could be a man. The director’s style is realistic but not intrusive. The shoulder-supported camera is not extreme and is used in the service of the film.

• Age Rating General (12 and under)
• Running time 00:15:45 mins



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