Punch

The setting of the story was inspired by a real place in Rome, Italy, where I was born and raised.

The place is called Gianicolo and it's a famous square with an iconic view on the city landscape. Among the trees, not far from the city view spot, there's still an old puppet theatre box whose owner entertained generations of kids for decades with his iconic marionettes' shows (among them, there was the famous Spaghetti Western' Director, Sergio Leone).

The vertical shape of the original puppet theatre box and the classic theatre mask painted above the little stage, gave me the first spark for the character design of the protagonist.

The title instead, is a reference to a famous character of the British tradition: Mr Punch. A marionette character whose origin is connected to the one of Pulcinella, his Italian Alter Ego, and to the whole tradition of the Commedia dell'Arte.

I always thought that would have been worthy telling a story about a place and a form of art which was part of the reason for why I decided to pursue a career in the animation industry. One day, right before to start working on this short film, I was passing by the puppet theatre box cited above and I got the feeling of standing by an old and silent guy who, after so many years, was still waiting for someone to enjoy of his marionettes' shows. This feeling, united to my desire to deal with a grotesque narrative, made me develop the idea which happened to become an animated short film written and directed by me!