SS25- Bonded

Set in the sun-bleached stillness of the Italian countryside during an unbearably hot summer day, this project is a deeply personal exploration of emotional dependency and loneliness, told through the quiet existence of a woman who seems to have been left behind by life.

In a rural village that feels suspended in time, she lives in solitude, her days stretched thin under the relentless sun. Everything and everyone has moved on — lovers, friends, youth — yet she remains, rooted in place, surrounded only by the silence of cracked walls, dusty roads, and the ceaseless drone of cicadas.

Her emotional world has turned inward. With no one left to hold onto, she clings to the presence of animals, finding comfort in their silent, non-judgmental companionship. Their needs become her structure. Their presence, her mirror. Her dependency on others for emotional nourishment shifts toward creatures who simply exist with her, not for her.

As the hours drag on, heat distorting the horizon, her gestures become small rituals of care: refilling a water bowl, brushing a cat, swatting away flies from a donkey’s back. These moments — almost invisible — are her language of love and her resistance to complete disappearance.

CREDITS:
co-directed by Andrea Jean Varraud and Marta Mangano
makeup by Michela Dragone
talent @candyquestionmark