The Field of Miracles

Two thugs that no one would like to meet in a dark alley, roam around at night in an empty field dominated by a large and solitary tree. Their nicknames are Fox and Cat.
Cat is reluctantly digging a hole in the ground, while Fox is watching the work in progress. They convinced Pinocchio to bury his gold coins there and now they are looking for them.
Due to their opposite personalities, the clash between the two is inevitable: Fox is confident and arrogant, while Cat is submissive and has trouble controlling his anger. The chatter goes from one subject to another and each thread is a possible source of conflict, until something snaps and the tables are turned.
A common quid pro quo between individuals of dubious morality can have unintended consequences, especially if one of them has a shovel in his hand…
Only one thing is certain: neither of them wants to divide the loot buried by the naïve Pinocchio. Who will find the coins and keep them for himself?
Field of Miracles is a three chapter short film, a contemporary spin-off of the very well known Italian fairytale by Collodi with a final twist that leads us somewhere in between Beckett and Tarantino.

The screenplay written by Alessia Rotondo is inspired by the famous tale by Carlo Collodi and tells how a spin-off the adventures of two secondary characters, the Cat and the Fox, when their role in official history is abandoned.
The adventures of Pinocchio is one of the most famous Italian novels internationally. Written at the end of the nineteenth century as a series of stories, it was then published by the author himself in the form of a novel. According to research by the Carlo Collodi Foundation, the book has been translated into over 240 languages.
The aim of the project is to recover elements of the original story and recount them with a contemporary setting and an international voice. The characters of Cat and Fox are made human, English-speaking and contemporary; they act in a natural environment, that of Basilicata, which is photographed as a non-place without a precise geographical and temporal location.
The staging is inspired by the play of Samuel Beckett, especially for the scenographic set-up that reminds the atmosphere of “Waiting for Godot”. The characters act at night, in an empty field as far as the eye can see interrupted by a solitary tree.
The subject tells the story of the characters Cat and Fox when they try to find the coins that poor Pinocchio has buried.
The static narration in contrast with the dinamic dialogues is the true instinct of the script. From the words of Cat and Fox emerge two personalities of poor intelligence, but with different ambitions and approaches to life.
The dialogues, which never mention the original story, delineate the characters with such precision that they immediately immerse the viewer in what seems to be the beginning of a story that has great evolutions in store. But it is a missed story, because the real battle, which should give the theatrical impulse, is that between the personalities of the two protagonists.
Operosity and dedication give us the impression of moving towards a mission, of reaching a specific purpose that will grant us the peace of a better situation. But all the efforts are rendered futile by a moral drift that makes them stagnant in a moment of existence. Like Vladimiro and Estragon, Cat and Fox think of an immediate success and are not farsighted, causing an endless loop to their existential condition.
The transposition then takes a fable for children typical of Italian culture, and makes it current, international and able to speak to an adult audience.
The project therefore wants to demonstrate the ability to steal a story that can go beyond national borders even if born and built by Italian artists and filmed in the south of Italy.