Select your language
Lower Emilia, May 1944.
Little Gianna, her brother Carlo, and her sister Adriana leave the city, made dangerous by bombings, to evacuate with their family to a village that, in the child’s eyes, seems dominated by a fairytale castle. In reality, the palace is a large asylum, from which one day Gianna sees a coffin being carried out, escorted only by the elderly parish priest. Out of compassion, she follows, causing astonishment among the villagers, because when the “mad” die, no one accompanies them.
This is the beginning of the bond between the child and that strange place—the castle-asylum—from which small games and fragile gifts created by a man confined within its walls start to reach her.
Federica Iacobelli works as a writer and screenwriter and teaches screenwriting at ISIA Urbino as well as in academies, advanced courses, and schools of excellence. She is the author of plays—some published in France (Il était de mai, Les Éditions Théâtrales 2009) and winners of international awards (Nelle mani di Anna, Premio La Ecritura de/s la/s diferencia/s 2017)—as well as essays and articles on literature, theatre, and cinema, and of scripts for animation, TV, and documentary films. Since 2019, she has directed and curated the theatre literature series for young readers, i gabbiani, awarded the 2023 Andersen Prize for Best Youth Series. She has published numerous stories in the form of novels or short stories. Il Paese dei Matti is her debut novel.
