LOGLINE: When Grace, a new girl from Naples moves to the small town of Galico Marina, local scavenger Domenico realizes she may not be the rich city-girl she appears to be from the outside, and develops a crush that pulls them together, only to finally tear them apart...
FORMAT: 30 minute short, film.
SYNOPSIS: In a small town on the southern coast of Italy, lives a young boy named Domenico. He lives with his Nonna and his younger brother Pietro - and runs along the beaches of Galico Marina with his band of friends, scavenging for scrap metal from felled bombs from the war.
Across the country lives Grace, raised for the last several years by nuns in a convent on the outskirts of Naples. One day, her step-mother arrives with sad news, that Grace's father has passed away, and she can no longer afford to put Grace up in the convent - so they've sold their house (and most of their worldly belongings) and they're moving to a small town where houses and life is more affordable.
Later that night, Grace and her family arrive in Galico, while Domenico and his friends sit on a nearby rooftop enjoying the ill-gotten gains of their scavenged metal (booze, cigarettes, nudie mags). All of them marvel at Grace's family's car, and their expensive looking luggage. "City folks," they say "probably here for the seaside views and to take more money out of our pockets..."
The next day at school, Domenico spies Grace entering with a sack lunch and her chalk tablet. The other boys egg him on, and he goes up to her, pretending to want to be her friend. Instead, he makes a vague pass at her, and pulls her pigtails, teasing her. They go inside, Grace seething with rage - she starts to write a note to herself in a cypher she created when she lived with the Nuns, so she could write with some privacy. The other boys start to tease her for this too, Domenico starts to feel weary, and tries to apologize to her, but she assumes he's going to start picking on her again too, so she pours a bottle of milk over his head.
That night, Domenico goes home to find his Nonna selling off his brother's bed-set, leaving them one twin-bed to share. Ashamed of what he's been spending his money on, he sneaks into her room as she sleeps, and slips some of his scrap-metal money into a box. Across town, Grace stands at her window, playing with her long brown hair. In an instant, at the recollection of Domenico pulling on her pig-tails, Grace wells up. She rushes to the kitchen, pulls out a pair of shears, and cuts all her hair off.
The next day at school, Domenico is torn between feeling genuinely bad for bullying Grace, and his friends insistence that he tease her again for their amusement. He goes up to her unsure of what he will do - but upon seeing the makeshift wool cap he's fashioned for herself, decides to tease. He pulls it off her head, and sees her shorn hair. He assumes that she cut it off to sell it, and asks if her family is poor. Wanting the positive attention (as she sees this would gain Domenico's sympathy), and camaraderie of even kind of a friend, she readily agrees - and Domenico admits his own family's poor finances to her.
As school continues for the two of them, Grace and Domenico grow closer, he takes her to the beach to see the bombs, and explores abandoned buildings that he and his friends like to play in. Grace teaches him how to write in her cypher. They both love it. One day, during lunch, Domenico asks if Grace had ever tried a cigarette. She says no, and Domenico tries to convince her. She says no, not wanting to be caught and get told-off by her mother, but Domenico pressures her into a puff - and of course they're caught by the teacher. Grace goes home in tears, and is beaten by her step-mother.
Late that night, Grace sneaks out of her house and climbs the wall of Domenico's room to talk to him through his window. She tells him he is the most selfish boy she ever met, and tells him she cut off her hair because he teased her, and that he only ever thinks about himself, and doesn't love anyone, especially not her. Domenico tries to protest, but it's no good. Grace tells him she never wants to see him again, and leaves. Domenico, in a fit of anger, runs out to look for Grace. He finds a bucket of black paint at the doorstep of a hardware store, and steals it. He goes to Grace's house and starts to paint something on the wall opposing her window. He goes to a trattoria and begs some of the older patrons to go inside and buy him Campari, which one of them does. Bottle in hand, Domenico sulks off towards the beach to find more bombs to collect sheet metal from.
The next morning, Grace wakes up and looks out her window to see her cypher written on the wall in thick black paint. "I LOVE YOU". She smiles and thinks maybe she misjudged Domenico. She rushes off to school, but when she gets there, Domenico is nowhere to be seen. She looks around, with a bad feeling, and sees two adults she doesn't recognize at the front of the class - something is wrong. She rushes out the door and looks out at the beach, where she sees smoke billowing up from the shoreline, and police cars and ambulances dotting the road. She searches the growing crowd of people, and sees Domenico's Nonna coming out of Church - a police officer doffs his cap, and walks up to tell her something. Grace and Domenico's Nonna make eye contact through the throng, and Grace, silently, turns to go back to school...
STATUS/MATERIALS: Synopsis and first 15 pages.
TARGETED BUYERS: This short film would be a proof of concept for a larger feature, and therefore would not have any targeted buyers - but instead be targeted at getting into a festival to procure interest from independent producers and small companies.
NEXT STEPS: I will complete writing Locus Iste by the end of April 2025, and hope to begin looking into production costs while I continue writing what will eventually be the feature-length version of the film.
EVENTS: TIFF (September 2027), Chicago International Film Festival (October 2027), Portland Film Festival (October 2027), Pendance Film Festival (February 2028), Slamdance Film Festival (February 2028), Toronto Arthouse Film Festival (October 2027).
DEVELOPMENT FINANCING PLAN: I currently have no financing plan in place for Locus Iste, I want to get the script done first and then evaluate how much it would cost, especially if shooting on location in Italy.
ATTACHMENTS AND PARTNERS: N/A
PITCHES: Locus Iste is being developed in house by my production company 512RED and has not yet been pitched to anyone.