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Like a fish out of water

by Chiara de Angelis

Direction
Chiara de Angelis
Production
Black Light film, Movimento Film
Authors - Screenwriters
Chiara De Angelis, Alice Sagrati
Kind
Coming of age ( comedy-drama )
Location
Italy, Lazio, Santa Marinella

The life of Donatella, a thirteen-year-old Tourette, is turned upside down by her mother’s choice to leave Santa Marinella to move to Rome. Donatella will have to leave her grandmother, friends and a father who became a fish after her death.

2004, Santa Marinella. Donatella, a thirteen-year-old with Tourette's syndrome, has few certainties in life but the only undeniable one is the story her grandmother Ilva tells her: Her father, who died in a car accident, has transformed into a fish. Sooner or later, he will swim up the sea of Santa Marinella to visit her. With the arrival of a new support teacher and afternoons spent with her lifelong friends Valentina and Pavel, Donatella feels safe and happy. However, just around the corner looms Rome, the big city where her mother, Stefania, plans to move with Donatella to start a new life together with her new partner. Donatella finds herself in increasingly deep waters, but luckily, there's a small boat ready to bring her back to shore.

Chiara De Angelis, Alice Sagrati

Chiara De Angelis was born in 1996 in Rome. After graduating in Literature and Philosophy, she continued her studies at the Cuban Film School, before returning to Italy is allowed to directing class at the CSC – Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia ( but she left). Working in various roles, on sets for Ferzan Ozpetek and Stefano Mordini, among others, and has directed some award-nominated shorts. Among these, Never Turning Around, selected for Visioni Italiane 2023 and BALLATOIO N.5 has participated in 19 festivals and winning 5 awards. In 2024, she joins the “Becoming Maestre” mentoring program by Netflix and David di Donatello, through which she signs the script and direction of the short film Bacialé, which will be distributed by Premiere. She also won the International Mattador Screenwriting Award with the feature film Pesce Fuor D’Acqua for Best Script. The project, which received selective funding from the MIC (Italian Ministry of Culture), is currently in an advanced stage of development with Black Light Film.

Black Light film, Movimento Film

Has been working as a producer for more than twenty-five years, working as executive producer, delegate producer and creative producer both in France and in Italy. Recent works include La Contadora de Peliculas (Selenium Film), The Shift (Notorious Pictures), Ladrones de Perros (Movimento Film) and Notti in Bianco e Baci a Colazione (Red Film). She supervised the EU Creative Europe funded Co-production Forums (for the European Producers Club for many years (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow, Sundance…). thus consolidating a strong network of European Film makers. For more than seven years she’s been coordinating the Festival de Rome à Paris (showcase of Italian Films) for Cinecittà and the Italian Ministry of Culture where she is in charge of the industry meetings in cooperation with the CNC and UniFrance.