WORLD PREMIERE LOCARNO 77 | CONCORSO CINEASTI DEL PRESENTE
documentary - 2023
directed by
As human beings made of flesh, we now spend most of our time in a digital landscape,
seeking happiness, wealth, relationships, knowledge, and experiences.
What is today’s reality made of?
Our shared understanding of ‘reality’ used to be made of tangible objects, of corporeal
relations, of experiences and events taking place in actual physical spaces. Recently
however, an inexorable process of digital acceleration has profoundly transformed our
planet, our societies and ourselves: our screens’ flat bright surfaces function as portals
into a disembodied world, a parallel digital multiverse where every existing thing is
transformed from the physics of oxygen and carbon to the physics of electron, and the
logic of bits. As we explore the digital landscapes beyond the threshold of our screens, we
leave our bodies behind, battling with tingles and back pain, while our incorporeal virtual
identities float unrestrained and unconfined in the online world: how does it feel to be
human in the digital age?
With a unique sci-fi-edged visual style, R E A L explores the transformation of human
experience in the digital era, shedding light on the many – at times disorienting - aspects
of living in a tech-dominated and hyper-connected world: the protagonists - human,
robotic, virtual - are grappling with cyber relationships, digital labours, online intimacy,
and fully automated homes and cities of the future. They tell us of screen and selfie
addictions and of alienation and algorithmic control, but also of new liberating ways of
exploring one’s own identity, beyond the physical constraints of the body.
Blending together documentary and experimental aesthetics, R E A L is a unique filmic
experience leading us into the disembodied world of the Web, by playing creatively with
the same lenses that we use every day to access new digital territories: webcams,
smartphones, surveillance cameras, VR headsets, mechanical and virtual gazes that
reveal a new way of experiencing reality.
With an associative mosaic of stories filmed across the globe, R E A L weaves together a
deeply evocative, essayistic meditation on our present condition of digital humans.
directed by: ADELLE TULLI
written by: ADELE TULLI
cinematography: CLARISSA CAPPELLANI, FRANCESCA ZONARS
editing: ILARIA FRAIOLI, ADELE TULLI
creative producer: LAURA ROMANO
assistant director: MAURO VICENTINI
original music: ANDREA KOCH
sound: MATTIA BIADENE, SYLVAIN COPANS
sound design & editing: RICCARDO SPAGNOL, JEAN-NOËL YVENS
mix: PAOLO SEGAT
art work: GIANLUCA ABBATE
research and digital archives: ALESSIA LOMBARDINI
vfx: StudioAIRA!
executive producers: VALERIA ADILARDI, LAURA ROMANO
delegate producers (PEPITO PRODUZIONI): MIRCO DA LIO, MARIA SOLE LIMODIO
produced by:
AGOSTINO SACCÀ, (PEPITO PRODUZIONI),
VALERIA ADILARDI, LUCA RICCIARDI, LAURA ROMANO, MAURO VICENTINI (FILMAFFAIR) in collaboration with CHARLOTTE UZU (LES
FILMS D’ICI)
A PEPITO PRODUZIONI and FILMAFFAIR production
with RAI CINEMA and LUCE CINECITTÀ
in collaboration with LES FILMS D’ICI
Italian distribution: LUCE CINECITTÀ
International sales: INTRAMOVIES
Produced with financial support of MIC/CNC
Developed in the Writing Residency NIPKOW (Berlin 2021), Venice Gap Financing 2023,
EWIP Koln 2023, Best project award at Milano Film Network Atelier 2023