Projects
Lionel
A road movie about a father and a son who decide to embark on a long journey of acceptance.
Summer begins in the south of Spain, and Lionel receives some news that interrupts his calm and warm vacations: when he turns 26, he will lose the orphan’s pension he has been living on since his mother died. At the same time, his father, absent for years and with whom he has a peculiar relationship, reappears with a sudden travel proposal: to go by car to the north of France to celebrate his sister’s birthday. Once there, the three of them drive together to the Côte d’Azur, where their father was born, and attend a tribute to their deceased uncle. Lionel, as a way to escape from his loneliness and uncertain future, decides to join his father on this journey. Embarked on a road odyssey, problems between Lionel and his father soon arise. The reckless attitude of his father pushes Lionel’s emotions to the limit, to the point of thinking of giving up. In the company of his sister, Lionel discovers that his father longs for the same thing he does: to be together and overcome his grief.
I have always felt the need to tell stories that place complex, but at the same time pressing issues of our time at their center. Throughout my life I have witnessed the influence of restrictive stereotypes of an archaic masculinity that have created in me and in my generation strong emotional barriers. Men are always keeping a pulse on the expectation of feeling strong, invulnerable and at times emotionally impenetrable. The conflict between the old masculinity and a new way of ‘being a man’ is an issue that occupies many of my conversations that suggest precepts and proposals so that we men can be men in a different and healthier way. After decades of female struggle, it is now up to us to take charge. To break the gender stereotype imposed by institutions, the media and, above all, by our earliest reference point, the family. With this film I want to approach with less fear of all those pains and truths that hide the silences of a new masculinity.
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