The voices and manners of reinvented Italian melodrama tell the story of the evening of Zobeide, a twenty-year-old girl in the company of her usual friends, where apparently nothing unusual happens, but those 20 seconds mark a turning point in her personal growth and her awareness of the cultural violence that governs relationships between men and women. The narrator's singing highlights the characters' thoughts and beliefs, leaving the responsibility of narration and its understanding to the visualized action. Zobeide walks quickly through the night, fearful of being followed by someone, real or imagined, like the shadow that accompanies every gesture of a woman who must deal with a pre-written cultural scenario, where it is the male dream that must come true and where women are only dreamed. This short film is a tribute to the short story "Cities and Desire," set in the city of Zobeide and included in Italo Calvino's collection Invisible Cities. It is also a small attempt at reflection on behalf of all the women who continue to be hunted in every season and place.

Director, story, and screenplay: Luciangela Gatto
Producer: Luciangela Gatto and Mimmo Curreri
Cinematography: Nunzio Gringeri
Editing: Mimmo Curreri
Original Music: Antonio Fichera
Soprano Voice: Annamaria Pennisi
Cast: Alice Albano, Gabriele Darrigo, Idriss Coulibaly, Francesco De Gregorio, Simone Cardile, Tania Marguccio, Lorenzo Donato, Giorgia Freni
Origin: Italy
Year: 2025
Running Time: 13

DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY
Luciangela Gatto was born in Cosenza on June 3, 1955, to parents from Messina. In Rome, she attended screenwriting seminars with Robert McKee and directing with Nikita Michalkov. She has created and directed short films and educational and training videos for institutional bodies, national broadcasters, and service companies. She teaches Audiovisual Design at the I.I.S.S. "R. Rossellini" in Rome. She created the nationally distributed monthly DVD magazine and edited the accompanying original DVD. She sits on the MIC Film Review Commission as an Expert in Film Culture. Her first feature film, "Rumon," was presented as a Special Event at the 2021 Rome Film Fest and won the "Un certo sorriso" award at the 2022 Black Silk Tulip Festival. Her second feature film, L'Oliveto delle Monache, won or was selected in 2024 at the Cefalù Film Festival, the Villammare Film Festival, the Toronto International Women's Film Festival, and the Indian Independent Film Festival as "Best International Feature Film." The short film In Posa per l'America, made with the community of the village of Santo Stefano Briga, was selected in 2024 at the MFF in Messina, the De Luxe Film Festival in Rome, and won an award at the Chicago Indie Film Awards. In 2025, it was a finalist at the Villammare Film Festival and the Cefalù Film Festival, and was selected for the Los Angeles Movie & Music Video Awards.