Leonardo Lidi

In 1968, engineer Giorgio Rosa established the independent state called "The Isle of Roses" off the coast of Rimini, built on a platform outside the territorial waters, with Esperanto as the official language. The Italian authorities did not take it well because the micronation was seen as an expedient to not pay taxes on the revenues obtained thanks to the arrival of numerous tourists and curious people.

Paolo Marra killed his wife for no reason. Consumed by guilt, he decides to turn himself in: he wants to pay the price, serve his sentence, and restore dignity to the woman he killed—and to himself. Amid distracted police officers, zealous lawyers, fortune-tellers, and complicated bureaucratic red tape, no one takes him seriously. The man finds himself the victim of a Kafkaesque paradox: no matter how much he wants it, he cannot get himself arrested. He is the perfect scapegoat for a grotesque society that ignores those who seek redemption.

On a winter’s day, Nena gathers her family to celebrate her birthday. Il paradiso del pavone is a small journey into the intimacy and authenticity of human beings: a film about an extended family in which everyone talks but no one really listens. Until an unexpected event forces the family members to look into each other’s eyes and reveal themselves for what they really are.

Successful illustrator Daniele Mallarico travels to Naples to look after his four-year-old grand-son while his daughter is away for a few days. What begins as a simple babysitting job turns into a subtle psychological duel, as the child’s boundless imagination slowly unsettles him. Trapped together in the apartment, Daniele is forced to confront something far more disturbing than a mischievous child: the fear of aging and the loss of creativity. Through this strange encounter, he may rediscover the power of imagination he thought he had lost.

The life and times of Italian music legend Renato Carosone.

For Il Gabbiano, the first stage of the Chekhov Project, director Leonardo Lidi creates a simple stage setting in which he weaves together a sound box for the emotions that drive the characters, isolated on the shores of a large lake on a summer estate.