Videodiario di un re prigioniero

Orlando Orlandi is a civil servant approaching 40 years of age in Rome. He complains about his mindless work, the jealousy and the power games. One morning in the spring of 2005, he starts hearing and seeing things that no one else hears or sees. That’s why he starts a video diary. In the days and nights that follow, he starts editing the film and transforms himself into Sixtus Sextus, in other words from a junior manager to the King of Spain; from someone who is madly in love with his boss’s daughter Celeste to a royal prisoner of the Grand Chancellor. This video diary juxtaposes everyday observations of his life and work with nocturnal impressions. With his video camera, he records his own house, his strolls around Rome and the Royal Palace in Madrid where he thinks he is imprisoned. As the days pass, the chaos increases. Misuraca, an ‘experimental documentarist’, was inspired for this story by Gogol’s Diary of a Madman, among other things. He asks himself implicitly whether it’s possible to link film (a subjective representation of the inner world) with documentary (an objective recording of the outside world). The result is a sharp and humorous hybrid, which can barely be categorised, of fact and fiction; a parable with political connotations, with a charming leading role by Gabriele Parillo and unusual shots of Rome. (EH)