On a torrid Sardinian summer day, while the scorching sun seems to evaporate even the drops of sweat, a small group of boys from Villanovaforru stumble upon an adventure destined to change their way of seeing the town and its history. It is the short film VillanovafHorror, a work of about 25 minutes produced during the film laboratory of the Sardinian festival Arrexini, 2022 edition, which has been held for a few years in the towns of Villanovaforru and Ussaramanna. Now, finding out if the boys will be able to escape the hidden dangers is simple: VillanovafHorror has been uploaded to YouTube on the institutional page of the Municipality of Villanovaforru. Giacomo Vacca, one of the boys who played a role in the film, hopes that "the short will also be seen by people who have not yet had the opportunity to see it".

Set right in the deserted and overheated streets of Villanovaforru, the film leads the viewer to the places and stories of a town that, behind its apparent tranquility, holds a mysterious legend, ready to reveal itself in the moonlight.

The actors are young local boys, in addition to Giacomo Vacca, also Alessandro Cabiddu , Michele Farris, Francesco and Chiara Ibba. Under the guidance of experts Stefano Cau and Maurizio Loi, the boys embark on a journey that takes them beyond the confines of their everyday lives to the legendary Figu Niedda bridge, a symbol of danger and a dark past. As they say in those parts, the bridge is marked by stories that would test even the most skeptical: stories of presences and mysterious disappearances, which remain imprinted in the memory of that segment of the older population.

After the phase in which inexplicable disappearances are listed, the short film turns black and white, with a disturbing sentence that seems like the beginning of terror: "Since 1963, the year of construction of the Figu Niedda bridge, the population of Villanovaforru has been in constant decline. There is no further data on the matter." This is the beginning that immediately immerses the audience in an atmosphere suspended between reality and fiction. An action that develops through evocative images of a small village in its almost spectral nocturnal charm. A fiction, however, that does not embrace the reality of things: in the municipality there are often new residents and a marked multi-ethnicity.

The boys' short, intense journey pushes them to confront the stories told by the elders, until, during a seemingly quiet night, they find themselves face to face with the legend itself. None of them are professional actors, yet each one has managed to transform their inexperience into an instrument of authenticity, as Michele Farris explains: "Our goal, in addition to showing the short, is to let the emotions felt during the shooting shine through... A unique experience that made us live something special: putting ourselves on the line and always trying new things. Even though none of us have studied acting, thanks to the help of two experts, something nice came out."

The project has attracted the attention of some festivals, such as the Sotto18 Film Festival in Turin and the Lago Film Fest in Revine Lago, a sign that the story of Villanovaforru has struck a chord well beyond the borders of Sardinia. The protagonists hope that this is just the beginning, as Alessandro Cabiddu and Giacomo Vacca tell us: «We would like it to be a starting point for future projects, because it has given us the opportunity to experiment and test ourselves», the two conclude.

Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxx1gmwnsDA&t=140s

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