SYNOPSIS

Life is like a swing ride. It makes you feel like you’re flying and never want to get off. Or at least that’s the case with Benedetta. When she meets Amanda, she can’t help but join her on her roaming journey.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

“Little Billy’s mother was always telling him exactly what he was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do. All the things he was allowed to do were boring. All the things he was not allowed to do were exciting. One of the things he was NEVER NEVER allowed to do, the most exciting of them all, was to go out through the garden gate all by himself and explore the world beyond.”

R. Dahl, Billy and the Minpins

This film is a fairy tale. Meaning: playing with reality.

When I was a child, I could tell the difference between a fable and a fairy tale. I’ve always found fables to be a bit sad and dull, with their inevitable moral at the end of the story. A fairy tale feels like an expanding universe, constantly growing in size, collecting any scattered element found unattended: nonsensical items, unusual characters, fascinating – yet a little disturbing – places. A fairy tale gathers it all and doesn’t try to decode it: it just relays it to you. It’s a never-ending journey of discovery that nobody explains. You are the only one who knows. When I read the script of Swing Ride, my first impression was of a fairy tale as black as a forest, brightened by a glittered path.

BIO

Chiara Bellosi (1973) graduated in dramaturgy at the “Paolo Grassi” Civic School of Dramatic Art in Milan. In 2006, she directed an episode of the documentary “Checosamanca”, produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina for Eskimosa and Rai Cinema. She got a Master in Documentary Film Making at the IED-Venice. In 2020, her first fiction feature film “Ordinary Justice”, was screened at the Generation 14+ in Berlin.

Swing Ride is her second fiction feature film.

CAST

GAIA DI PIETRO Benedetta
ANDREA CARPENZANO Amanda
BARBARA CHICHIARELLI Anna
GIANDOMENICO CUPAIUOLO Marco
FRANCESCA ANTONELLI Silvana
ALESSIO PRATICO’ Mario
CLAUDIA SALERNO Claudia
RACHELE PETAVRACHI Rachele
GERMANA PETAVRACHI Giada
PAOLA TINTINELLI Alma
EMANUELE MAIORANO Primo